“Art is a tool of political strategy and the artists are the major ambassadors of a Country.” That’s the firm belief of Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania -past Major of Tirana and past Minister of Culture- during the opening of Pavillion of Albania at Biennale of Architecture in Venice.
At the opening ceremony of the Pavillion of Albania, Edi Rama paid homage to two artists very close to him: Edi Hila, his master, witness the cruelty of the past, and Adrian Paci, his student, expression of a new generation of international artists.
The project “Potential Monuments of Unrealised Futures”, is meant to come back to Albania and start an internal debate on the future of architecture, but Edi Rama’s message is so strong and authoritative to exit the Albanian boundaries:: “Culture is a remarkable instrument of change in a Country, especially in developing countries. A new road can change the life of some people, but a cultural project changes the life of a community”.
The “purple revolution” (the favorite Edi Rama’s color) ongoing on the other side of the Adriatic comes as a butterfly carried by the wind. Or rather carried directly by the Premier (who flounted one of them on the back of his shirt). A message of hope for art and creativity.
Text by Silvia Fattore, correspondent WOW!
The Republic of Albania participates at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, with the Pavilion Potential Monuments of Unrealised Futures, exhibiting works by two Albanian artists: the series of paintings entitled “Penthouse” by Edi Hila, and the video and installation “The Column” by Adrian Paci.
The Pavilion curated by Beyond Entropy Europe (Jonida Turani and Stefano Rabolli Pansera), is commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Albania and was realised thanks to the contribution of the Ministry of Culture, the Albanian Cabinet and the generous support of the artists, their galleries, collectors and private foundations.
The work “The Column” by Adrian Paci is articulated in two elements: the projection of the video and the column resting horizontally just outside the exhibition space. The video shows the transformation of a block of marble into a Corinthian column on a factory-ship in the ocean. The column, universal architectural element, emerges from the labour of a group of workers, who, covered in dust, become an extension of the sculpture. Once completed, the column, detached from its context, is not erected but remains horizontal, in a state of im-potence, of perpetual tension and potentiality.
With the series “Penthouse”, Edi Hila focuses his gaze on the unfinished architectures diffused in peri-urban contexts. The domestic architectures dispersed in the landscape are elevated onto plinths becoming imagined archi- tectures loaded with rhetorical and monumental elements such as arches, pediments and pilasters.
