Con la curatela di Marco Scotini, Armando Lulaj interverrà nel padiglione dell'Albania
dal sito del governo albanese
The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Albania has the pleasure to announce the participation of the Republic of Albania at the 53rd International Art Exhibition in Venice (9 May 2015 – 22 November 2015), with Albanian Trilogy: A Series of Devious Stratagems, a project by Armando Lulaj, curated by Marco Scotini.
Lulaj’s and Scotini’s project was selected through an open call for proposals (21 August – 30 September 2014) announced by the Ministry of Culture, as the commissioner of the Albanian pavilion, a process that marks a first for the Albanian contemporary art scene. Albanian Trilogy: A Series of Devious Stratagems represents for Lulaj the conclusion of many years of research on the Cold War period in Albania and beyond, on the role of the past in the present; as well as on memory and historical experience – research conducted through archive material, and in particular the “trophies” and the gaps of the past. The first work in this series is the film It Wears as It Grows, whereas the second one is Lulaj’s well known project Never – which has been widely exhibited internationally. The third work, Recapitulation, will be produced especially for the forthcoming Venice Biennial.
Albanian Trilogy: A Series of Devious Stratagems was selected unanimously by a prestigious international jury – composed of: Boris Groys, Kathrin Rhomberg, Adrian Paci, Albert Heta, and a representative of the Ministry of Culture – that convened in Tirana during 16 – 19 October 2014 for the occasion. The jury has motivated its decision as follows: From among the number of thoroughly convincing artistic projects submitted for the forthcoming International Art Exhibition in Venice (9 May – 22 November 2015), the jury unanimously decided to recommend Albanian Trilogy: A Series of Devious Stratagems by Armando Lulaj, curated by Marco Scotini, to represent the Republic of Albania.
With Albanian Trilogy: A Series of Devious Stratagems, Armando Lulaj pursues the investigation of available readings of Albanian history from the Cold War to the present day by reintroducing once highly representative and politically charged images and narratives still ingrained in the people’s visual memory, in a way that goes far beyond a subjective questioning of one nation’s history to forcefully account for a general analysis of the ruins and failures of modernity.
Lulaj’s ability to create connections and contexts that are not obvious but at the same time persuasive, the visual appeal of the works themselves (It Wears as It Grows, Never and Recapitulation) as well as the installation, which manages to be both playful and monumental at the same time– a rare achievement, ensure that Albanian Trilogy: A Series of Devious Stratagems will be able to engage a wider public, apart from those who are interested in and informed about Albanian history.
The pavilion of the Republic of Albania is commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Albania.
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Albania
Artist: Armando Lulaj
Curator: Marco Scotini
Location: Arsenale di Venezia
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THE ARTIST:
ARMANDO LULAJ (1980) is an artist, playwright, and filmmaker living and working in Tirana, Albania.
Following his expulsion from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 2001, as a result of a series of actions aimed at freeing the instution from theoretical and academic conformism, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, from where he subsequently also obtained an MFA.
His solo shows include UNTITLED (Bologna: Galleria Cavour, 2014); Fiend (Tirana: National Theatre, 2013); Cold Wind (Bologna: Art Fair, 2013; Basel: Volta8, 2012); No More Feelings (Rovereto: Paolo Maria Deanesi Gallery, 2012); No Mercy (Milan: Artra Gallery, 2011); Silent Soziale Corruption (Munich: Stästische Kunsthalle München, 2010); Time Out of Joint (New Zealand: Te Tuhi Center for the Arts, 2007); Mainstream Dissent (Milan: Artra Gallery, 2006); Temporary Autonomous Zones (Tirana: Insurgent Space, 2005).
He participated in many international group shows, such as: Territories (Graz: centre for contemporary art, 2014); Utopian Days (South Korea: Total Museum of Contemporary Art, 2014); Lost in Landscape (Rovereto: MART Museum, 2014); Les Rencontres Internationales (Paris: Palais de Tokyo, 2014); The Empty Pedestal (Bologna: Museo Civico Archeologico, 2014); The Aesthetics of the Small Act (Thessaloniki: Action Field Kodra, 2013); Off Side (Locarno: La Rada Space for Contemporary Art, 2013); 63. Berlinale Film Festival (Berlin, 2013); 6th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art (Berlin, 2010); 8th Baltic Biennale of Contemporary Art (Szczecin, 2009); Italian Vision Film Festival (Bologna: Cineteca, 2007); October. Art from the East (Milan: Artra Gallery, 2007); 52th Venice Biennial, Albanian Pavilion (Venice: Palazzo Malipiero, 2007); 4th Gothenburg Biennial (Gothenburg: Roda Sten, 2007); Prague Biennial 3 (Prague, 2007); Laws of Relativity (Torino: Fondazione Sandreto Re Rebaudengo, 2007); Opening Hours (Athens: Rebecca Cahmi Gallery, 2007); Onufri 06 (Tirana: National Gallery, 2006); Bunker no Bunker (Mexico: Ramis Barquet Gallery, 2006); AYOR. No Man’s Land (Athens: Hellenic Foundation, 2006); Action Field Kodra (Thesaloniki: Boundary Lines, 2006); Mini Tirana Biennal (New York: Apexart, 2006); Tirana Biennale 3: Episode 1 – Temptations & Episode 3 – Democracies (Tirana: National Gallery, 2005); Glokal (Kosova: National Gallery, 2004); Post-Albania (Hamburg: Kunst Raum Gallery, 2004); Tirana Biennale 2: U-Topos, Endurance-Transmigration (Tirana: Debatikcenter of Contemporary Art); Prague Biennale 1 (Prague: Wetricki Palace, 2002); Cosi lontani cosi vicini (Firenze: Amerigo Vespucci Airport, 2002); Onufri 02: Small Brother (Tirana: National Gallery, 2002); BalkanArt02 (Novi Sad: National Gallery, 2002); Networking 1 (Siena: Magazini del Sale, 2002); Rotte Metropolitane 3 (Firenze: Galleria Biaggioti, 2001); Till I Collapse (Firenze: Gallery of Academy, 2001). Short films include: ; Living in Memory (2004); Problems with Relationship (2005); It Wears As It Grows(2011), and NEVER(2012). His screenplays include: The Tristidia Rhapsody (2010); Firefly (2011), and 100 Euros (2012).
Lulaj has been an artist in residence at (Graz, 2014), TICA – AIRLAB (Tirana, 2012) IASPIS (Stockholm, 2010); Villa Valberta (Munich, 2009); Action Field Kodra (Thessaloniki, 2006). His work has been awarded first prizes at the Marco Magnani Prize, 2011; Premio Paolo Parati, 2011; Premio Carmen Silvestroni 2008; Onufri Prize 2006. In 2014 he was awarded with the Albanian prize for Visual Arts “Danish Jukniu”.
THE CURATOR:
MARCO SCOTINI is an independent curator and art critic based in Milan. He is the Director of the
department of Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA in Milan. He is Editor-in-Chief of the magazine No Order: Art in a Post-Fordist Society (Archive Books, Berlin), and Director of the Gianni Colombo Archive (Milan). He has been recently appointed as Artistic Director of PAV in Turin for the year 2015. He is one of the founding members of Isola Art and Community Center in Milan.
His writings can be found in periodicals such as Moscow Art Magazine, Springerin, Flash Art, Domus, Manifesta Journal, Kaleidoscope, Brumaria, Chto Delat?/What is to be done?, Open!, South as a State of Mind, and Alfabeta. He is the editor of a book dedicated to film documentary and archive, Politics of Memory (Rome: DeriveApprodi, 2014; Archive Books, 2015) with contributions by John Akomfrah, Eric Baudelaire, Ursula Biemann, Yervant Gianikian e Angela Ricci Lucchi, Khaled Jarrar, Lamia Joreige, Gintaras Makarevicius, Angela Melitopoulos, Deimantas Narkevicius, Lisl Ponger, Florian Schneider, Eyal Sivan, Hito Steyerl, Jean-Marie Teno, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Mohanad Yaqubi.
His most recent exhibitions include the ongoing project Disobedience Archive (Berlin, Mexico DF, Eindhoven, Karlsruhe, Nottingham, Bucharest, Riga, Zagreb, Atlanta, Boston, Umea, Copenhagen, Turin, Madrid, Istanbul 2005–2014); Da Capo: Deimantas Narkevicius (Zagreb: MSU, 2014); Vegetation as a Political Agent (Turin: PAV, 2014); The Empty Pedestal: Ghosts from Eastern Europe (Bologna: Archeological Museum, 2014); A History of Irritated Material (London: Raven Row, 2010) co-curated with Lars Bang Larsen and Gianni Colombo (Turin: Castello di Rivoli, 2009), co-curated with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. He is working on a major exhibition dedicated to art from the Middle East, Too Early, Too Late for Pinacoteca Bologna, 2015.
He has curated more than 100 solo shows or retrospective exhibitions of artists such as: Santiago Sierra, Deimantas Narkevicius, Jaan Toomik, Ion Grigorescu, Regina Josè Galindo, Gianni Motti, Anibal Lopez, Said Atabekov, Alimian Jorobaev, Vangelis Vlahos, Maria Papadimitriou, Armando Lulaj, Bert Theis, and many others. He has also dedicated numerous exhibitions to the artistic scene from Eastern Europe, including: A Sense of Wellbeing: Loss, History and Desires (Karlovy Vary: Palace of the Imperial Thermal Baths, 2001); Revolutions Reloaded (with Mihnea Mircan, Berlin & Milan, 2003–2004) Der Prozess: Collective Memory and Social History (Prague Biennale 3, 2007); October: Exit, Memory and Desire (with Andris Brinkmanis, Milan, 2007); The Empty Pedestal: Ghosts from Eastern Europe (Bologna: Archeological Museum, 2014). His collaboration with Armando Lulaj lasts since 2001 and he has supported and collaborated with the artist ever since.
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