Why Kamza is a solo exhibition of artist Alban Muja, curated by Tevž Logar. The exhibition consisted of two works of the artist, a video – an installation with two channels (21’) and a painting of watercolor technique on canvas. These works were displayed at Bazament Art Space from October 27 to December 3rd, 2021.
The works in this exhibition examine various aspects of geopolitics and informal construction structures near the Municipality of Kamza, Tirana, which were not founded based on a regular urban plan. Their content examines the structures that are part of the public space and in its context they unfold social and political models based on the transition of the early 90s. Through these works, the artist seeks attention to the dangers of ideological mechanisms, where we find ourselves as individuals or as a society.
A painting of a horizontal format is exposed in the first room, examining the theme of this carefree urban transition. This painting contains some furniture store buildings placed in a horizontal line, realized in the technique of watercolor on canvas.
Further, the video-installation divided into two different channels and the moving images are projected on two sides of the wall facing each other. Each of the videos show the furniture stores built on both sides of the road as a visual essay. The camera reflects them in a continuous horizontal linec as the images of that landscape get memorized as a documentary. Beyond this, the video – the installation also functions as a critical, ironic or merely reflective response to inflation in the booming and saturated Albanian economy.
The images displayed in Alban Muja’s work, according to the curator, are used in the form of “visual riddles” to challenge the viewer, while detailing the “behind the scenes” and the stories that make up our lives.
*Alban Muja (born 1980) is a Kosovan contemporary artist based in Berlin and Prishtina. Primarily influenced by the social, political and economic transformation processes in the wider surrounding region, he investigates history and socio-political themes and links them to his position in Kosovo today.
Selected exhibitions include: Ludwig Museum, Budapest; Maxxi Museum, Rome; 3rd Industrial Art Biennial, Istria, Croatia ; MOMus Experimental Center for the Arts, Thessaloniki; Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn; Guangdong Museum of Art; Museum Of Contemporary Art – Skopje; MeetFactory, Prague; Forum Stadpark, Graz; James Gallery, New York; City Art Gallery of Ljubljana; Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou; Museum of Fine Art, Split; Trieste Contemporanea; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka; Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; ‘2ndBiennial of Contemporary Art in the Atomic shelter in Konjic, BiH; Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana; National Gallery of Kosovo; Museum of Fine Art, Split; Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills; Slovak National Gallery; Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden; 28th Ljubljana Graphic Biennale; nGbK, Berlin; National Gallery of Arts, Tirana; Cetinje Biennale and others.
Muja in 2019 represented Pavilion of Republic of Kosovo at the 58 Venice Biennale with project called “Family Album”.
