On 10.12.2011, the “Garden of Dreams” exhibition, presenting the modern Albanian art which is practically unknown to the Polish audience, will open in the Municipal Gallery bwa in Bydgoszcz.
Albania, which for many years was enslaved, isolated, fighting for survival and preservation of her national identity, is trying to restore her due place in the united Europe – the place which is due to her because of her centuries-old culture, one of the oldest in the family of European countries, the culture which is tenaciously cultivated, preserved for centuries of annexation and atrocities suffered as a nation. It’s also a ground of common experiences of Poland and Albania, common aspirations for independence and common problems in creating a social and cultural order. It is a perfect occasion to present the latest art from Albania, the art full of fresh breathing. It’s a great opportunity to show the similarities between enslaved societies, their desires, vitality and creativity.
The presentation of this exhibition in Poland will be an opportunity to tell about the fates of a nation tossed into the whirl of uncompromising struggle, great imperialist interests of ideologies, economy, desire of power sweeping aside human and existential values. This store of experiences is the reason for emergence of both a language using a traditional form and of historical references constructing forms based on modernity, which in themselves bear an image of future.
The exhibition is supposed to present activities that are multi-directional in respect to both form and content and which are based on the social experiences. Artistic attitudes of the modern Albania. Remembering the history and, at the same time, craving for a future visible in the many genres of the artists’ activities. From painting to spatial forms (including video installations) to photography to peformance to new media. The Polish audience will have an opportunity to compare the aspirations of that people expressed in a language of artists presenting the changes in the innovative expression of painting, digitally processed photography or the popular language of new media. All the forms of expression revolve around the history, around Albanian identity in the context of European culture and history.
The exhibition is supposed to reveal the complexity of the Albanian culture to the Polish audience, to present this almost forgotten country through her modern realisations. To reveal, in spite of her certain otherness, her inseparable element of the European garden of dreams. The garden where the expression and attitude to dissimilarities of all kinds is a superior value for the Albanians remembering their past. An unprecedented time of horror which retained in them a broad area of tolerance and understanding, seen in their artistic realisations.
The exhibition will present 26 artists living in Albania, and 2 Albanian artists
living and working in the modern-day Kosovo.
An exhibition of Albanian art in such approach, so extensive in respect to form and content, with participation from the artists presenting all generations, is a novel project not only on the European scale, but also globally. The Bydgoszcz exhibition will be the greatest presentation of modern Albanian art ever presented.