Albania is one of the most unknown countries within Europe and due to its isolation during the Hoxha-regime, it also seems to be a kind of terra incognita within the so-called Balkan region. This ignorance often entails prejudices. Neighbouring countries experience Albania as dangerous, strange and incomprehensible. Western Europeans tend to associate Albania with Mother Teresa, Ismael Kadare, blood revenge and bouncers, conflict and the mob. Fact is that the political and economical situation in Albania is far from ebullient. It remains to be seen whether an artproject like the Biennale can contribute to economical growth and social change without instrumentalising art as such.
The initiators of the Biennale believe that this can happen. In their opinion the Biennale should function as a kind of eye-opener which makes outsiders more aware of the situation in Albania and as an event that indirectly gives new impulses to Albanian society. Of course art can never be a hammer with which to change society, as Mayakovsky once claimed but it can definitely function as a kind of catalyst which speeds up processes of change and transition.
On the 17th of December 2003 Edi Muka and Gezim QŒndro, directors of the TB, will talk about the goals, organisational structure and development of the Biennale. Their lecture will be followed by a discussion with e.g. Hedwig Feijen (Manifesta) Caroline Gehrels (Berenschot), Johan te Velde (NGO). The guests will discuss the above-mentioned issues in a more general sense.
The evening will be completed by the screening of two videofilms, realised by artists Anri Sala and Sagi Groner, which present the city of Tirana from their personal perspective.
Entrance is free but reservation is compulsory. Please call 020 55 35 100
from 1 p.m. till 6 p.m.
For more information, please contact W139: 020 622 94 34 or info@w139.nl