Driant Zeneli (1983, Shkoder, Albania), lives between Milan and Tirana. In 2019 and 2011 he represented Albanian Pavilion at the 58th and 54th International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale. In 2017 he won the MOROSO Prize and in 2009 the Young European Artist Award Trieste Contemporanea. In 2008 he won the Onufri International Contemporary Art Prize, Tirana. He was the artistic director of Mediterranea 18, the Young Artists Biennale from Europe and Mediterranean, taking place for the first time in 2017 between Tirana and Durres in 2017. He is co-founder of Harabel Contemporary Art Platform, Tirana. He is the co-founder of Harabel Contemporary Art Platform, Tirana.
He has exhibited at: Palazzo Grassi, Venice, (2021); 39th EVA International Biennial, Limerick (2020); Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon (2020); National Gallery of Republic of Kosove, Prishtine (2019); Sharjah Art Foundation, Film Platform, (2019); Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga (2019); Autostrada Biennale, Prizren, Kosovo (2019); GAMEC, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bergamo, (2019); Passerelle, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brest, (2018); Mostyn Gallery, Wales, UK (2017); MuCEM, Marseille, (2016); Academie de France à Roma, (2016); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016); IV Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Chile (2015); GAM, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Turin (2013); White House Biennial, Athens (2013); KCCC, Klaipeda, Lithuania (2013); ZKM, Karlsruhe (2012); MUSAC, Castilla León. Spain, (2012); Prague Biennale 5, Prague (2011); Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genoa (2009); National Gallery of Tirana, (2008).
Gallery
Statement
The redefinition of the idea of failure, utopia, and dream stand at the core of Zeneli’s research, as elements that open up possible alternatives. In his films, power and History are interlaced with individual narratives, giving rise to utopias that subvert the natural order of things. The creative act feeds on unplanned encounters and the relationship with the architectural heritage of places.
Zeneli uses his films as a material to sculpt place and time. The performances take the form of participatory interventions, during which the artist con-creates the meaning of the work with the spectators. The element of gravity resonates throughout the artistic production, be it films, drawings or happenings, in a constant attempt to detach himself from the earth, to play with his own limits.
Since 2008, this artist has launched an art education project dedicated to the relationship between practice and pedagogical research, an investigation into the relationship between creation and education that intends to experiment with alternative practices to those carried out by public institutions. From time to time, the artist creates workshops for children focused on storytelling and uses tools such as electronics and robotics to understand our actions and boost our imagination.