Tirana Biennial 3 Press Release

Accreditation

Form

  The title of this episode is “Bittersweet”, an adjective that is used when describing something that is attractive and that gives pleasure, however, that might also bring difficulties or have a bitter aftertaste.

In a curatorial meeting in Tirana, Edi Muka and Gëzim Quendro, directors of the Tirana Biennale, made it clear that they wished for episodes that would trigger discussions and debates in Albania. Amongst urgent topics they mentioned gender and sexuality. “Bittersweet” will address these specific topics and will touch upon a number of taboos by presenting examples of how artists today are working with the themes of love and sexuality in relationship to power.

There will be 15-16 artists in total, some of which investigate established norms for love and sexuality: how those are formed; what expectations, needs and behaviours they generate, and how they function as to perpetually re-establish socio-sexual structures with inherent power mechanisms. Other artists will address more acute relationships between sexuality and economical power, by dealing with phenomenas such as trafficking and sex tourism. There will also be artists working with the ever growing sexualisation (through advertisement and other media), of public space as well as artists looking at how sex has been - and still is - used as an effective weapon in warfare and other conflicts.

Amongst the participating artists I can mention Suela Qoshja, based in Tirana, who will present a series of photographs which she took of herself just after her neighbour was trafficked to Germany. In the photographs it is as if Suela is trying to imagine herself in her neighbour’s situation, attempting to understand what awaits her and how it would feel to be her; Joanna Rytel, based in Stockholm, who has made a film in which a female voice is speaking out all the politically incorrect thoughts that enters her head during her relationship with a Somali man; thoughts that reveal prejudices and feelings of superiority, but also fascination and attraction; Mario Rizzi, based in Turin, will publish a book focusing on the vexations and injustices committed against transsexuals in Istanbul. According to the artist “being a transsexual in Istanbul is often an obliged choice, a more-socially-accepted way to avoid a straight coming out in a cultural environment where homosexuality is not an option”.