From a Western point of view, the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha was the most isolated regime of all: without transport links, bad roads, with a monopoly on media and information, and, naturally, the classic example of a country promoting the art of socialistic realism. After the end of the dictatorship, Albania was seen by the political world as a potential crisis region. The situation in the art world was different, at least by 1998, with the exhibition »Onufri« in the National Gallery in Tirana (involving the participation of international artists coming mostly from the Balkans), and with the presentation at the festival in Venice in 1999, which were the birthplace for international careers such as that of Anri Sala. Two years later, a biennial exhibition is taking place, also in Tirana, thanks to the initiative of the same committed artists, above all the former minister of culture and now mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, as well as Edi Muka, networker and curator of the National Gallery.
The fact that such a mega-event could be put on despite the difficult political situation and the lack of resources is the result of an act of solidarity between local artists, curators and Giancarlo Politi. Thirty-eight curators, mostly associated with Politi, and many of them correspondents for his »Flash Art,« selected the over 200 artists mentioned in the catalog. The reality was slightly different, since the catalog and the exhibition in the National Gallery and the »Chinese Pavilion« in the center of Tirana differed. Many of the stars of the present art market remained at home with their works, something that by no means diminished the quality of the festival, however. Those artists who did not come from the so-called »reform countries« had to pay for their works, transport and travel costs themselves. The motives of those who did come were many and various. They ranged from solidarity in an »artists-of-all-countries-unite« sense and the hope of leaving some cultural traces here in front of international capital and local developers, to curiosity about travelling to one of the poorest countries in Europe. What does the Biennale mean for Tirana itself? Certainly the realization that it can organize a cultural event on an international scale despite limited resources. That was also shown by the rush at the press conference: 16 TV cameras covered what was happening. After all the decades of compulsory isolation, the variety of media is veritably proliferating. There are said to be more than 100 private television stations. The Biennale was, however, certainly intended to send signals towards the outside as well: to gain international attention for a pluralistic, democratic Albania, and present a positive image of Tirana to the Western world – by all means with critical art as well.
For example, the Italian Antonio Riello and the Albanian Mamurras refer to the situation of the Albanian »boat people« in their computer games »Italiana Brava Genti« (Good People, the Italians) and »Go West« A few members of the collective A12, founded in Genoa in 1993, set out in boats to reproduce the subjective experience of illegal immigration. In the video »Territorio Comanche,« Alex Cechetti questions his compatriots about their relationship to the Albanians. The former head of advertising at Benetton, Oliviero Toscani, has again tried to hit a contemporary nerve by inviting the Muslim fundamentalist artist Hamid Piccardo after the terrorist attacks in New York. With the picture of Lockerbie in the catalog, he refers to a connection with the »children of Osama bin Laden.«
The videos of Elsa Mazeau, who lives in Paris and Berlin, deal with migration and racism. Adrian Paci from Albania has depicted his migration experience in the photo series »Back Home.« Families, including his own, were photographed in front of a painted backdrop that was meant to represent their former home. The whole family posed in front of this imaginary background. The title is »Back Home,« after all. A fiction about returning to an ideal, familiar Albania supported by wealth. Canadian Jamelin Hassan, who lives in London, refers in her installation to transhistorical and transcultural phemomena. Kyungah Ham from Seoul has created a many-facetted picture of her culture with her four-part video documentary on the color yellow in the library of the National Gallery. Outside, there were also interventions, like the poster by the Swedish artist Karl Holqvist showing portraits of bearded anarchists, artists and musicians. The opening was accompanied by performances: the first of these, on the canopy of the National Gallery, was a performance by the »Beatles« commissioned by the Albanian Sisley Xhafa. The most subtle work of art was also the most realistic: Cezary Bodzianowski from Lodz accompanied the art developer Politi for the entire day as his bodyguard, and it wasn't until the opening speech that the rumor went around that this, too, was a performance.
Translated by Tim Jones