POTENTIAL MONUMENTS OF UNREALISED FUTURES

The show, curated by Jonida Turani and Stefano Rabolli Pansera of Beyond Entropy Balkan, was originally commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Albania for the Pavilion of the Republic of Albania at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2014. The London show at the AA was opened by Edi Rama; the charismatic Prime Minister of Albania. He’s a man who believes in beauty as a catalyst for change and is the force behind much of Albania’s positive transformation.

The AA gallery regularly exhibits work from emerging professionals, to exhibitions containing the work of more established architects and related professionals.

February will see the launch of two new shows in the upstairs gallery spaces; Jan Kaplický Drawings presents work by the Czech architect Jan Kaplický (1937-2009) – a visionary designer with a passion for drawing and stunning photographs of British pillboxes by Richard Brine.

The Architectural Association

Context• Work by two Albanian artists: Edi Hila and Adrian Paci

• The origins of the two artists play an important role in the concepts behind the exhibition

• The painting series Penthouse looks at the mix of architectural elements found in the penthouses at the top of housing blocks in Tirana, the capital city of Albania

• These penthouses, among lots of other buildings in Albania, don’t conform to a unified style of architecture synonymous with an Albanian ideal, as Albania has been part of a great many other nations and under control by lots of different states in its history and its architecture has been influenced by all of them

• The modern-day territory of Albania was at various points in history part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia (southern Illyricum), Macedonia (particularly Epirus Nova), and Moesia Superior.

• The territory was also part of the Ottoman Empire, before the Empires collapse in Europe following the Balkan Wars, where after Albania became a republic.

Context• Albania declared independence in 1912 (to be recognised in 1913), becoming a

Principality, Republic, and Kingdom.

• Albania was then invaded by Italy in 1939, which formed Greater Albania, which in turn became a Nazi German protectorate in 1943.

• In 1944, a socialist People's Republic was established under the leadership of Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour.

• In 1991, the Socialist Republic was dissolved and the Republic of Albania was established.

• Being part of the Roman Empire had a large impact on the architecture of early cities in the area that would later become Albania, and then further influencing what was built afterwards. Roman cities and state buildings being known for being huge grand stone buildings with pillars and arches, and domed roofs, with lots of Greek stylistic elements.

• The Ottoman Empire also had a huge influence in Albanian architecture, at the time Islam dominated the area as the most commonly held religion and practice of life, with Islamic religious buildings influencing what important buildings should look like in the capital, with lots of spires, domes, and towers.

Context• With the invasion of Italy, followed by Nazi Germany, and then the dictatorship of Enver

Hoxha and the huge battle he waged against nationalists in northern Albania, large portions of the country suffered lots of damage from bombing and ground warfare, with lots of innocent lives lost and towns abandoned, meaning lots of sections of the larger cities are quite new in terms of architecture, while other areas haven't changed or been renewed in centuries. Communism also meant a promise of huge nationwide development, with lots of buildings and ambitious architectural projects started, then the economical crash and eventual downfall of the Socialist Party meaning these buildings were left unfinished, perhaps linking to the title of “Unrealized futures”

• After the Socialist Republic was dissolved and the Republic of Albania was established, Capitalism has allowed Free-market reforms to open up the country to foreign investment, bringing lots of western influence, western architectural ideals and generally helping shape the general consensus of the public in deciding what a luxury penthouse should look like.

• Albania is also now officially considered as an upper-middle income economy, meaning citizens who can afford to live in a penthouse in the capital, can also afford to take control over the architectural style of there home, whilst also possibly having a social image to uphold, which needs to be backed up by an appropriately styled living space.

Context• Therefore looking at the penthouses in the capital city of a country is an interesting way of

analysing a cross section of a society, its history, and its current tastes in architecture. Edi Hila envisages the domestic architecture dispersed in the Albanian landscape through these paintings. The constructions, elevated onto plinths, become imagined architectures loaded with monumental elements: arches, pediments and pilasters. The paintings reveal a conceptual model for transforming the traces of modernity into potential monuments.

• The title, Unrealized Futures, refers specifically to the processes of the construction of buildings, and unfinished architectural elements, the artists avoid the traditional architectural viewpoint. In the potential created by the fragmented and uncompleted plans, lie the conditions of a new concept of potentiality considered as a value to be preserved. Maintaining this potential suggests another direction for political and architectural action.

• The large pillar outside the gallery, Known as The Column by Adrian Paci, also reminisces on the Roman influence on Albanian architecture, and the nations opinion on what shows grandeur in architecture, whilst also alluding to the exhibitions title. The pillar lies on its side, in the street, in a state of impotence and potential, it is expected to be standing upright supporting the roof of a grand building, like most pillars, however it will remain as a piece of art, its future unrealised.

Key Piece• We chose Adrian Paci’s ‘The Column’ as our key piece.• The piece comes from a series called ‘Lives in Transit’, which includes videos, installations,

paintings, photographs and sculptures made since 1997.• ‘The Column’ was a video piece made in 2013, showing the carving of a ‘Romanesque’

marble column onboard a Chinese cargo ship, on its way to Paci’s Parisian studio.• The piece comes in 2 dimensions; the video (the story of the making of the column) and the

sculpture, which was exhibited outside the Architectural Association where everyone is able to see and touch it.

• Loved how quiet the video was. There was no music to accompany it or talking, only the sound of the ocean and the breaking of the marble.

• The muted colours fitted well with the quiet of the video. The washed-out look came across as quite dream-like.

• This was enhanced by the fact that most of the video took place in the middle of the ocean.

• It had an atmosphere of solitude.• The paintings had similar muted colours.

Key Piece

• Paci talking about the process of having the column carved whilst on the journey to the buyer;

‘it sounded so weird, simultaneously sick and fabulous, something mythological and at the same time in keeping with the capitalistic logic of profit – merging the time of production with the time of transport.’• One article said that ‘The Column’ was an ‘admittedly esoteric’ installation, but I

disagree. You don’t need to know Paci’s motives behind the making of the piece in order to appreciate it. It has a very strong narrative on its own, especially with the inclusion of the characterful faces of the men working on the column.

Paci talking about the story behind ‘The Column’

http://lemagazine.jeudepaume.org/2013/03/adrian-paci-the-column-at-jeu-de-paume/

Key Piece

Key Piece

Key Piece• This is an image of ‘The Column’ at Galeri Mana in Istanbul. The larger and longer space is more effective as

it allows the viewer to step back from the video to take in the expansive images shown.• The Architectural Association’s gallery space was small, and you felt uncomfortably close to the screen.• The piece was also shown at Jeu de Paume in Paris which was a larger space as well.

Adrian Paci was born in Shkodër, Albania, in 1969.

From 1987 to 1991 he attended the Akademia e Arteve in Tirana, Albania. He lectured in art history and aesthetics in Shkodër from 1995 until 1997, at which time he left his home country for Milan, escaping the violence of the armed uprising that roiled Albania that year. Paci’s position as an exile holds a central place in his oeuvre. His work frequently addresses themes of geographical separation, nostalgia, and memory, and conveys a keen sense of the mutability of life and art.

Adrian Paci

Paci is known primarily for his work in performance and video, although he explores similar subjects in painting, photography, and sculpture.

Paci is known primarily for his work in performance and video, although he explores similar subjects in painting, photography, and sculpture. Characterized by a fluid interplay between performance and body art, his videos frequently focus on quotidian existence and feature members of his own family. In the video piece Apparizione (2001), for example, Paci’s daughter sings an Albanian song on one screen, while her relatives in Albania complete the unfinished verses on another. Though physically separated in life and in art, the family becomes unified through tradition and a shared language. In several of his videos, Paci uses his body to create poignant statements about loss—whether by crawling across the floor with a roof tied to his back (Home to Go, 2001), or by staging his own funeral with the help of a professional mourner (In Vajtojca, 2002). While his work centers on his own identity and personal history, it nevertheless actively engages its audience, challenging viewers’ limited perceptions of reality.

Adrian Paci

Edi Hila was born in Shkodër, Albania in 1944.

Since 1991 he has taught painting at the Tirana Academy of Arts (where he has notably educated artists such as Adrian Paci and Anri Sala).

As an important figure of the Balkan arts scene, the work of Edi Hila has for the last 20 years bared witness to the profound changes experienced by societies in post communist Europe. Having refused to emigrate to a more economically prosperous country, Hila remains living in Tirana where he has developed a practice which reflects on the transitory nature of Albanian history (its geography between east and west) and on the position of Albanian painting in Mediterranean art history.

Edi Hila

Hila's most recent series has placed an emphasis on urban environments and in particular the architecture which has become an expression of a complex and unexpected Albanian identity. The attitudes and cultural heritage of his homeland materialize themselves in street scenes or through ghostly architectures. Hila's painterly manner manifests these studies with mysterious and almost supernatural character. In his paintings the view of everyday life seems to take place in a science-fiction backdrop.

Edi Hila