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Feb 27, 2014

Open Invitation | makeLab Workshop @Polis University

makeLab, the digital fabrication studio at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michiganwill be conducting a workshop at Polis University in Tirana, Albania from July 4 – 13, 2014. The workshop will focus on digital fabrication (on-site digital design/build) and will be conducted on makeLab’s 4th suitcase CNC

Contact Jim Stevens for more information and make sure to visit makeLab/Albania 2014 website for updates. 


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Feb 21, 2014

Featured Artist & Exhibit | Alketa Ramaj @STACION

STACION - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina 
presents:

The First Solo Exhibit of the Albanian Artist in Kosovo  

Curated by: 

Today: February 21st - March 22, 2014
opening @20:00 hrs


Artist Talk: February 22, 2014 @19:00 hrs


About the Artist.

Alketa Ramaj (
here) was born in 1983 Përmet, Albania. After receiving her B.A. at the Academy of Fine Arts in Albania, she went on to study in Venice at the Academia of Belle Arti di Bieno. She currently lives and works between Tirana and Venice. Her work has been the subject of widely exhibited group and solo shows, and has won her prizes and residencies locally and internationally. Among others, she has won the Onufri Award (2012) and Ardhje Award (2013).

Curatorial Text. (via)
NO TITLE at STACION – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina appears in the functional architecture designed for another piece that was exhibited as part of the program of STACION – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina. The decision to show this work in this functional structure, powerful but foreign to it, has to do with the physical space where this architecture can function, with the new process initiated by this work, but also the social context and the time when this work is shown. This context is not a foreign to this work.

The work can be seen as a reference of the relationship between a couple as a cycle of what may seem monotony, but in reality is an internal conflict of insecurity and silent domination.
In this context, this reading stimulates thinking about the ‘natural’ acceptance’of the silent domination (or the loud), within and outside traditional man- woman couples and keeping conflict as internal being the modus operandi of our entire society. We don’t only lock our rights and the rights of others, but also our ambitions and dreams, pressured by social norms which are not created to become laws, but are constantly uploaded and recycled by ‘parallel’ societies for daily needs of domination. Shshsh! The boy is sleeping.

The boy sleeps in a context dominated by the disappearance of public institutions which in any context should produce space for the progress of a contemporary society, whose steps to progress cannot be halted by stories of the past, a private interest or a certain belief.

About the Venue. (via)
The exhibition NO TITLE with Alketa Ramaj at STACION – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina is a prelude of the New Project, a collaboration project between STACION – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina and Tirana Institute for Contemporary Art – T.I.C.A. This project is based on the strategic goal of STACION – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina and T.I.C.A to create working space for artists, socio-political workers and independent institutions that in any reality and society are indicators of social development and often are also the only connection with the existing social and political reality.

NO TITLE with Alketa Ramaj at STACION – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina is placed to function in the architecture of the exhibition 3-2-1… Long Sorrow with Anri Sala curated by Edi Muka.

NO TITLE with Alketa Ramaj at STACION – Ceneter for Contemporary Art Prishtina is part of the annual program of STACION – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, and is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport of the Republic of Kosovo, Ministry of the European Integration of the Republic of Kosovo, X-print and DZG.
NO TITLE with Alketa Ramaj at STACION – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina is placed to function in the architecture of the exhibition 3-2-1… Long Sorrow with Anri Sala curated by Edi Muka.
NO TITLE with Alketa Ramaj at STACION – Ceneter for Contemporary Art Prishtina is part of the annual program of STACION – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, and is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport of the Republic of Kosovo, Ministry of the European Integration of the Republic of Kosovo, X-print and DZG.


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Feb 20, 2014

Adrian Paci | The Story of a Stone

Albanian artist Adrian Paci (here, here, here, here) introduces his 2013 (video) work 'The Column'. An art piece "taken off the mountain, rolled down, brought onto the boat and then transformed by human actions." An ongoing process that keeps transforming the marble into a column, human actions into culture, authenticity into transit.   

It is a piece that becomes more powerful the more it is being worked on, the farther it moves and the human relationships it creates along the way.


*Interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at Jeu de Paume, Paris. 
*Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

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Feb 18, 2014

Open Invitation | Renovation of MARUBI Museum (Phototheque)

The Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Albanian Development Fund and Atelier Albania has launched an international competition on the project “Restoration and Museumization of the National Photo Gallery Marubi” in the city of Shkodër.

Copyright © Marubi Museum

This OPEN CALL invites all architects, preservationists, engineers, museologists and curators to come up with a visionary design for a more publicly accessible and contemporary museum. 

The challenge here is much more than deciding how much of the building's history to preserve/restore and how to modernize it in a way that opens it up to the city and its audiences (local & international). It is an opportunity to transform a whole historical, cultural and artistic institution: who it is, how it operates, what it exhibits, why it promotes, etc.
From the way it archives history and restores heritage, to the contemporary dialog it has within and the one it starts with the rest of the city fabric (old and new). 

As I've mentioned before On Preservation
Everywhere, urban diversity and historical layers are being replaced by universal, consumer driven, money making aesthetics. According to Koolhaas, this so-called preservation is not favoring the great, the ancient, or that which might deserve it. It has become a selection vulnerable to political motivation and correctness. It is done for the wrong reasons while triggering more development and speculated land values. He argues that the result is a “a new form of historical amnesia, one that, perversely, only further alienates us from the past.
Copyright © Marubi Museum

Important Dates for this Two Stage International Competition.
*For more info, details, and qualifications, make sure to visit the competition website.

STAGE 1 – CALL FOR INTEREST

February 7: Official Launch

February 25: DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF INTEREST

February 26 – 27:  Jury Pre-selection

February 28: ANNOUNCEMENT OF SHORT-LIST

***
STAGE 2 – CALL FOR PROPOSALS

March 1:  Official Invitation of 5 Short-listed Teams

March 30: DEADLINE FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

March 31:  Public Presentations of 5 Proposals

***
Also, if you're in the region, make sure to visit the MARUBI Exhibit at the Kosovo Art Gallery in view until March 14, 2014.



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Feb 17, 2014

Featured Artist | Irgin Sena @MIZA

MIZA Galeri
presents // prezanton:

IT STARTED STARTED STARTED SOMEHOW (zoo)
by // nga

February 19 - March 19, 2014 // 19 Shkurt -19 Mars, 2014
Opening // Hapja @19:00 hr



Irgin Sena is an Albanian artist currently living and working in NYC. For selected works and other info, make sure to check out his website, where you'll also find a preview of his pieceit started started started somehow (zoo)opening at MIZA on Wednesday.



Below, is an excerpt in Albanian via MIZA:
it started started started somehow (zoo)” është një film 16 minuta, i cili përbëhet nga tre elementë të vecantë. Njëri prej tyre hulumton marrëdhënien midis një monumenti dhe pemëve që e rrethojnë atë; për më tepër vë në dukje kapacitetin e kësaj marrëdhënie për të kompozuar kolonën zanore të saj. Një element tjetër hulumton një kopësht zoologjik – që zvogëlohet gjithnjë e më tepër duke qëndruar si një mbetje nga një kohë tjetër – dhe marrëdhënien e tij me ambientin rrethues. Kamera është e drejtuar nga objektet që përbëjnë këtë ambient, duke bërë që kopështi zoologjik të jetë i pranishëm në film vetëm nëpërmjet zhurmave që prodhon. Të tre elementët përbërës ndërpresin, zgjasin, deformojnë, riformojnë dhe përtërijnë kuptimin e njëri-tjetrit nën efektin e kontekstit ku ndodhen.

Pa titull është një video lak e cila paraqet një objekt rrotullues mbi një platformë. Objekti, rrotullimi i të cilit është i përkohshëm, ka si realitet rënien. Rënia, në këtë video, duket e vonuar; por me kalimin e kohës vërehet që objekti nuk bie. Ai është në një rrotullim pa fund.
Kjo zgjatje kohore materializohet edhe në shushurimën e ujit, e cila është një instalacion audio në hapësirën e parë të galerisë. Kjo shushurimë, në gjëndje të segmentuar, është e pranishme dhe “It started started started somehow (zoo)”, film i cili shfaqet në hapësirën e dytë të galerisë.
Here is an interview with the artist [in Albanian].


IRGIN SENA SPECIALE nga Elsa Demo from MIZA on Vimeo.

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Feb 16, 2014

Feb 8, 2014

Featured Collective | Albanian Artists at SUPERMARKET 14 - Stockholm Independent Art Fair


SUPERMARKET 2014 - Stockholm Independent Art Fair 
is opening its doors February 14-16, 2014

Created and managed by artists to create an international platform for artist-run galleries, it showcases over 80 artist-run spaces from 30 countries including the newest ones: Georgia, Syria, Tibet and Brazil.
This year's theme is DIFFERENCE(S)

via zeta

Albania will be once again represented by: 

ZETA [Art Center & Gallery

& artists


I would highly recommend you get to know these artists and their exceptionally original work through an array of mediums. (just click on their names)  

source: below publication via endri dani

Feb 7, 2014

Featured Project | Estudio Lunar for E12 Gjilan, Kosovo


Rotterdam-based Estudio Lunar is the runner-up for the Europan 12 Gjilan, Kosovo. The competition for this site has no declared winners.

via Estudio Lunar

Their proposal titled Welcome to Urban Wellness! is an approach that emphasizes, promotes and plans a healthy future vision for the city, not just dealing with consecutive botched-up quick-fixes. An Urban Wellness, a healthy solution to prolonged urban, social, and economic illnesses it has suffered. “Wars, political events, earthquakes, economic crisis … have left in Gjilan several scars and erroneous situations that now it’s time to be corrected.

For more info, plans, and photos on this project visit bustler.


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Feb 6, 2014

Open Invitation | Public Awareness and Advocacy Campaigns on Media Integrity in South East Europe

SEE Media Observatory has announced a 
Call for Proposals for Grants 
to Implement Public Awareness and Advocacy Campaigns
on Media Integrity in South East Europe

Application deadline: February 28, 2014


The Center for Independent Journalism Budapest (call administrator) is seeking proposals from civil society organizations (CSOs) to implement public awareness and advocacy campaigns and organize actions aiming to support free, independent, pluralistic and viable media in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia.

Civil society organizations - professional associations, advocacy groups, research institutes, human rights organizations and other CSOs - specializing in media are invited to propose actions with a duration from 3 to 6 months to be implemented in 2014. The total funds available for this call for proposals are 25.000 EUR; a maximum grant amount of 5.000 EUR per country will be awarded.

This call for proposals is part of the project “South East European Media Observatory – Building Capacities and Coalitions for Monitoring Media Integrity and Advancing Media Reforms” which aims at supporting integrity both in public service and commercial media in South East Europe.

For more information about the grant and application docs, visit SEE Media Observatory website.

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