ALTERAZIONI VIDEO

Osservatorio Balcani is a project dedicated to the reading of this wide and young site in transformation. On the occasion of the publication Arcipelago Balcani (Silvana Editoriale), carried out by aMAZElab in collaboration with the European Commission Culture, the international collective Alterazioni Video (Milan, Berlin, NYC), presents the over six hundreds Polaroids taken during their recent stay in the Albanian land. During these journeys the artists have observed the reality taking one’s cue from the distance that separates them from beeing native inhabitants of the place. This pleasant mental state of active and imaginative observation is the one in which every traveller finds himself when, in a foreign country, he is fascinated from the reality that surrounds him, maybe just because he can’t deeply understand it. An ironic and sincere portrait of the country seen through the eyes of its own inhabitants. The trips to the seaside, the social life, the workaday, the sport, the leisure time, the eclectic architectur, the spontaneous design: elements of identity narrated from the same Albanians, in a kaleidoscope of visions and ambitious dreams, that form an alternative mapping of territory and places.

Besides the vision of this wide collage of images, Alterazioni Video invites for the first time in Italy the Albanian collective Tirana Ekspres, with whom a site specific intervention in the public space of the city has been carried out. Active in their venue in Tirana, recently opened in the hangar of the railway storage by the central station, Tirana Ekspress have been the driving force of the participative action inspired by one of the biggest obsessions of Albanians: the car washing. Lavazh Special Parti has been conducted as an amused public action, a collective party, ritual that hides a critic position toward the obsession for the car, its polishing, the chrome platings. External and internal washing to simbolize a more transparent method even in the administration of the country and of the institutions.

The documentation video of the performance Lavazh Special Parti (2011) will be presented here for the first time / as preview in the world, together with the other exhibition materials and with the inedited video Deep Transition (2011) by Ervis Eshya (Albania), a poetic tale about the transformations of the territory observed from the the train window, during the journey from the Balcans to Europe.

Tirana Ekspres is a nonprofit orgsanization for contemporary art founded in Tirana in June 2011 in a post industrial space, the organization aims at promoting the national and international artistic scenario through an exhibition and education program. As a cross disciplinar platform Tirana Ekspres foster the dialog between artists and public with diverse artistic and cultural backgrounds, organizing lectures, debates, presentations, artist talks and publications.