May 4–28, 2017
Mediterranea 18
Tirana-Durrës
Albania
Albania will be the hosting country of Mediterranea 18 Young Artists Biennale, a multidisciplinary exhibition that takes place once in two years in a different location in Europe. For the first time, the Ministry of Culture of Albania represented by Minister Mirela Kumbaro, will organize an international exhibition that brings together more than 230 international contemporary young artists in the city of Tirana and Durrës.
Driant Zeneli was appointed the Artistic Director of Mediterranea 18 Young Artists Biennale, with the responsibility for conceptualizing the theme and setting up the curatorial team composed of:
Curator of Applied Arts: Jonida Turani
Curator of Visual Art: Maja Ćirić
Curator of Performance: Ema Andrea
Curator of Literary Creation: Maria Rosa Sossai
Curator of Music: Alban Nimani & Rubin Beqo
Curator of Film: Eroll Bilibani
The theme of Mediterranea 18 is History + Conflict + Dream + Failure = HOME and much more than a simple equation, Zeneli’s curatorial concept describes why HOME is themed around four elements:
“History, intending the archive of the unaccountable number of individual stories, recorded or forgotten. Conflict, to consider the way we share homes. Dream as the project of home, as the fundamental human right to be free to choose and desire our real or imaginary home. Failure as the inner resistance of the various attempts, transformed along the way in search for the dream home”.
Mediterranea 18 Biennale will start on May 3, 2017 with a pre-Biennale talk and a performance organized by Regione Puglia in a ferry-boat travelling from Bari to Durrës. The talk on the ferry-boat will bring together a number of artists, art critics, journalists and politicians coming from all over the world to discuss about HOME in the context of the current socio-economic and political occurrences in Europe and the Mediterranean. On May 4, the Ministry of Culture of Albania will organize the opening of the Biennale in Tirana, Albania. On May 9, the preview days will come to an end with a music performance that will be held in the Amphitheater of Durrës, a world heritage candidate.
Multiple exhibition spaces
More than 230 artists will exhibit in some unusual and thought-provoking spaces around Tirana and Durrës which include former communist sights, museums, buildings, installations, etc. Some of the exhibition spaces are the following:
Former Residence of Enver Hoxha, Villa 31
This is the villa where the former communist dictator Enver Hoxha used to live. It has remained untouched ever since the Hoxha’s relocated. The villa is located in a neighbourhood called “Blloku,” a former residential area of the Communist Party’s elite. Once inaccessible by the ordinary citizens, “Blloku” is now the trendiest area in Tirana.
Piramida – The Pyramid
This pyramid shaped structure once served as a museum for Enver Hoxha’s legacy, while today it has been transformed into a Cultural Center.
Reja – The Cloud
This is an installation artwork by the renowned Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, which has been borrowed from London’s Serpentine Gallery and built in the outdoors of the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana. It hosts various cultural events and it has become a popular attraction for the Albanian and the foreign public.
Mediterranea 18, a stop in between two important art exhibitions.
The international public can enjoy an interesting cultural itinerary starting from Documenta 14, Athens to Mediterranea 18, Tirana & Durrës and ending with the 57th Venice Biennale 2017.
Documenta 14: April 14–July 16
Mediterranea 18: May 4–28
57th Venice Biennale: May 13–November 26
*Mediterranea 18 will remain open to the public until May 28, 2017.
