PARTICIPATION – PARTICIPATORY PRACTICES AS ARTISTIC STRATEGY
T.I.C.A has the pleasure to announce the artists in residency for the spring period April- May 2013.
Focused on Participatory art, this year program will follow the successful practice of the previous year by supporting and presenting, research and artistic projects developed by the invited artists in residency.
Edit Pulaj was born in 1974 in Tirana/Albania. She begins her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana under the supervision of Edi Rama and had her first solo exhibition in 1994 at the Te & Gi gallery in Tirana. In 1996, she won pépinières européennes pour jeunes artistes, a six month residency in Norwich, UK, and concluded the program with the solo exhibition “Audition Colorée” at the Norwich Puppet Theatre. In 1997 she continued her postgraduate studies at the Byam Shaw School of Art & Design in London where she lived and worked until 2009. Then she returned to her homeland Tirana, Albania setting up her own studio. In March 2011 she had her solo exhibition “Soft” at the FAP gallery in Tirana.
Edit Pulaj is mostly focused on painting, but in her practice she also moves between installation and interactive works. Hiding the original whiteness of the canvas under thick layers of dark hue, she circumvents the idea of a formal beginning or a point zero scenario. Instead, she claims the darkness of the canvas as a beginning in its own right that is informed by concealed anxieties, cultural displacement, language barriers and many other undefined modes of a social unease, onto which she meticulously applies shades of color and abstract forms. Working exclusively non-figuratively, she acknowledges painting as a medium of poetic and transcendental qualities, whilst remaining sensitive to the conflict of seeking clear forms of communication within.
Tekla Aslanishvili was born in 1988 in Tbilisi/Georgia. She studies for a BA in Fine Art at the University of Arts – Berlin /Germany, in Prof. Hito Steyerl’s class. During the period
Between 2011 and 2012 she attended the class by Prof. Thomas Zipp. Tekla studied elementary studies of Fine Arts at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. She lives and works in Berlin.
In her works Tekla Aslanishvili emphasizes the social disparity, often confronting the audience with unpleasant circumstances. She frequently involves individuals with different social backgrounds and vocation in her work. They voluntary or in exchange for money make / epitomize the artworks. Main focus of Tekla's actual artistic research is a war memorial, as a state-approved form to visualize and justify the forcible death and how political death cult was modifying over the centuries. The most commonly used medium for transforming the monuments is an interactive installation and sculpture.
Tekla Aslanishvili is the co – founder of ‚aBarti‘magazine (non profit art and social / limited edition magazine) and the co – founder of “Visual Art Studio”, which was dedicated to a reform of the educational system at the Academy of Arts and to popularization of the Contemporary Art in Georgia. Tekla's work has been exhibited in group shows both in Georgia and internationally.
studio203 is an artistic and architectural collective whose core is composed by Stefano Romano (artist) and Eriselda Çobo (architect). With a rhizomatic mode the collective works, absorbs and promotes all other collaborators with whom it works.
studio203 works in a processual area, through relatively simple gestures which aims are to generates multiple relationship among individuals and groups, and instigates debates on political, architectonic and social issues. Temporary actions, performances, installations and photographic works that, in the propensity to networking mode, becomes collective participation, aesthetic and politic mobilization, in constant dialog with the urban space in which the artwork do not disappear, do not simulate reality but it shows it openly.
Gjorgje Jovanovik was born in Skopje/Macedonia in 1980. In 2003 he graduated at the Department of Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Skopje/ Macedonia. In his recent work, the question of the integration and disintegration of the contemporary man has been his preoccupation. He re-examine interpersonal communication in the context of the general situation of redefining universal values, man-society relations, and consumerism as a key factor of modern life style, politics as a factor of disintegration of the cities, states, and families. Also, the element of self-reference is present – a re- examination of the self in inner or extensive contexts of decaying old, and creating new values. Using no limits in media he has worked on installations, performances, objects, videos, collages, and paintings in order to achieve a transformation of the artistic dimensions of his individual expression by following up the fluidity of the contemporary context.
Working both as visual and performance artist, Gjorgje has presented his projects successfully in important personal and collective exhibitions. For his practice, he has been awarded with the award for young visual artist “Denes”, The video award at the international festival Alternative Film/Video in Belgrade in 2009 and Akto award at Akto Festival in Bitola, Macedonia in 2012.
In the framework of ARDHJE award, organized by T.I.C.A and supported by FAVA- Foundation for Albanian visual arts across borders, two other Albanian artists will join the spring residency period.
Henrjeta Mece is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, writer, and educator. Her research and creative practice in the discourses of contemporary art, history, and geography explore issues related to the body, space, place and belonging. Mece completed her BFA at OCAD University (Toronto) and later her, MFA. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including; Vtape Fellowship, Canada Millennium Excellence Award, and various Ontario Arts Council Grants. She has been invited to participate in several national and international residencies, conferences, and public lectures including, The Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada) and the Deleuze Studies Conference (Portugal). Mece’s artwork and curatorial projects have been exhibited throughout Europe and North America including, MOCCA – Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Canada (2011), Banff Centre of the Arts, Canada (2009, 2010), Populus Tremula, Iceland (2012) and Zweigstelle Berlin Gallery, Germany (2012).
Driant Zeneli was born in 1983 in Shkoder/Albania he lives and works in Turin/Italy. Zeneli investigations have made their mark among emerging artists with the actions he organizes and then records on video and in photographs, and with the irony with which he observes the evolution of contemporary society and the mechanisms of human nature. Recent important presentations of Zeneli work are; Solo shows at Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani, Milan , Tina B, National Theater, Prague and Upload Art Project, Trento, Italy in 2010. Studio Tommaseo, Trieste, Italy and White Project Gallery, Pescara, Italy in 2009 as well other group shows at ,ZKM, Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany (2012). MUSAC, Museum of Contemporary Art Castiglia Leon, Spain (2012). Venice Biennale, Albanian Pavillion, Italy (2011). Prague Biennale 5, Czech Republic (2011). 98 weeks project space, Beirut, Lebanon (2011). Trongate 103, Glasgow, Scotland ,2011.
http://driantzeneli.blogspot.com/
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The AIRLAB program is made possible through the generous support of the Network Partnership 3 – year grant of Princ Claus Culturfund. It consists of two residency periods per year. The residencies will be thematic and multidisciplinary, with a different theme to be explored every year. A yearly e-publication with artistic documentation and external text contributors to the program will accompany the program.
T.I.C.A. residency program is also supported by FAVA – Foundation for Visual Arts across borders.
