Albania 2021
In our home
Title: In our home
Commissioner: Mrs. Elva Margariti, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Albania
Curators/Exhibitors: Fiona Mali, Irola Andoni, Malvina Ferra, Rudina Breçani
At the wake of a new decade, Albania’s answer to the question “How will we will live together?” is as simple as: know your neighbor!
This special spontaneous bond, owes only to the immediate proximity offered by our living spaces. It depends on each and everyone’s willingness to communicate with a stranger. But not just any stranger: a stranger that has a lot in common with us, a stranger who lives just a few steps away. Together with these strangers, we shape the identity of our apartment buildings, our neighborhoods, our city.
In Albania, less than twenty years ago, next door neighbors were often closer than relatives. Every family’s home was open! Today, only one generation later, we have too, shifted towards an isolated mode of indifference and unsettlement.
Driven by the conviction that the quality of our life together depends first and foremost on our collective consciousness, the Albanian pavilion attempts to symbolically bring to attention what or who might lie beyond our apartment’s walls. It is an invitation to cross these thin barriers and discover the gift of a connection that fulfills our need to belong and makes a place out of our address, transforming our building, our neighborhood and even our city into something much more meaningful.
The pavilion evokes a once thriving socializing space – the guest room, as a place of sharing lost between the walls of new apartments. Three such neighboring apartments, besides sharing walls, secretly share a space that can only come to life if the neighbors are willing to make the discovery.
Here, in our home, the visitor sees himself as part of old Albanian films, he stands among neighbors being neighbors. A moment of reflection: what has become of us and our homes?
VENUE:
Arsenale
OPENING TIMES:
May 22 – July 31 Tue – Sun, 11am – 7pm
Aug 1 – Nov 21, 10am – 6pm
ADDRESS
Arsenale, Arsenale, Castello, 30122, Venice, Italy