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Events

29 Mar 2008

Lecture

Edi Muka
Bienalizing - Drifting between Iconoclast and Iconoclasm
in the (Dis)continuity of Tirana Biennial

3 pm


When considered beyond serving vested interests (biennial as a mixture of state spectacle, cultural hegemony, market interests, and toursist commerce), the biennial phenomenon can be an occasion to engage in cognitive mapping of the culture of a region, a country, a city; at the same time, it can develop a focus on international art on home ground, the pedagogic effects of which process are enormous.  This is especially true in countries that have no museum practice worth the name when it comes to modern and contemporary art, where the opportunities to engage with international art are scarce.


Edi Muka, freelance curator, co-Director of Tirana Biennale, co-founder and Curator for TICA - Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art. Born in Durres, Albania, on 09.02.1969. Lives and works between Tirana and Stockholm.
1987-1991 studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana and graduates in Painting. In 1995 attends the intensive international course on curatorial devices, organized by Soros Foundation in Kyiv, Ukraine. 1995 - 2005 guest professor at the Contemporary Art Atelier at AFA in Tirana. In April 1999 is appointed Director of the International Center of Culture in Tirana. 2001 - 2006 Curator of the International Program at the National Gallery in Tirana. Guest lecturer in art programs and curatorial training programs in various academies in Europe. Co-founder and co-director of Tirana Biennale. Has curated several shows, with Albanian and international artists in Tirana, Milan, Berlin, Stockholm, New York, Tel Aviv etc. Co-curator with Joa Ljungberg of RETHINKING DISSENT, the 4th edition of Goteborg International Biennial of Contemporary Art, 25 August – 25 November 2007.

Writer for local and international magazines, such as PamorArt, FlashArt, Springerin, Camera Austria, Manifesta Journal, Contemporary, Frieze, etc.

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