BOOK LAUNCH: A COLLECTIVE MONUMENT: SOCIALIST REALISM AS HISTORY AND METHOD
Speakers: Raino Isto. Moderator: Jonida Gashi and Ataol Kaso
A publication edited by Raino Isto. A Biblioteka Art & Politikë (BAP) book series published by Pika pa sipërfaqe.
The book launch is part of the exhibition: Manifesto GREAT WAVE, by DEBATIKCENTER of Contemporary Art and takes place within the program of Tirana Art Weekend.
MANIFESTO Collective: Arie Amaya-Akkermans, Valentin Begarin, Boris Budini, Jonida Gashi, Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, Raino Isto, Klodi Jahaj, David Kampi, Jora Kasapi, Ataol Kaso, Valentina Koça, La Société Spectrale, Sonja Lau, Armando Lulaj, Ylber Marku, Marco Mazzi, Wendy Morava, Redon Skikuli, Underground Movement, Pleurad Xhafa.
“Albania has not invented a great historical narrative, unlike many of its neighbors. Here, the conditions of modernism are still able to open up different possibilities for art, possibilities that can be developed without replicating situations and experiences that have already happened elsewhere. For several years, the Manifesto project has been analyzing and working on these particularities, through its first two editions MANIFESTO Hijacking (2022) and MANIFESTO Desertion (2023). In this third edition, Manifesto comes as a GREAT WAVE (2024–25), proposing a new movement in the visual, cinematographic, theoretical, and political arts: a movement that deconstructs the country’s past along with its current neoliberalist consolidation, offering a critical retrospective outlook that focuses on social reality and proposes a new historical narrative of Albanian arts and society.” – MANIFESTO Collective
Image: Armando Luaj, Department of TATE (Dear Harald Szeemann), 2018. Letter written inside a US State Department certificate and grant holder with gold stamped logo, 45.5 x 30.5 cm. Archive D.C.C.A. FD.C.C.A Archive. Photo © David Kampi. Courtesy of the artist. Private Collection.
Tirana Art Weekend is a project of Albanian Visual Arts Network (AVAN).
Exhibition Hours: 18:00-20:00.