UNDER PRESSURE – Facts of socialist architecture in Albania

mostra a cura di/curated by

Gjergji Islami, Denada Veizaj, Gjergj Thomai, Polytechnic University of Tirana;

Enrico Fontanari, Università Iuav di Venezia

concept grafico e design/graphic concept and design

Ana Pekmezi

con l’attenzione speciale di/with the special attention of

Andrea Maliqari, rettore/rector, Polytechnic University of Tirana

partecipano all’inaugurazione/participating in the opening ceremony

Andrea Maliqari, rettore/rector, Polytechnic University of Tirana

Alberto Ferlenga, rettore/rector Università Iuav di venezia

Giergji Islami, Polytechnic University of Tirana

Enrico Fontanari, Università Iuav di Venezia

Facts of socialist architecture in Albania

This is an effort to envisage the reality of communist Albania by using architecture as a decoding tool. The exhibition invites the visitor to read a storyline, which is neither chronological nor built on sequential facts. Constructing a path would constitute in a way a biased approach or a perspective by the authors. The exhibited material aims to neutralize any possible level of pre-interpretation, which drives the visitor towards his personal exploring and experiential paths into an unknown context.

The generic theme of the exhibition consists in illustrating the many forms of dialogue established between architecture and political power, portraying at the same time a dichotomy that is mirrored throughout the creative process of the architect. 

Given the Albanian context, how was architecture impacted by the pressure modeled from ideology and communist propaganda? The answer is revealed through an episodic collage that exposes pieces of distorted, bended or overlapped realities. Eight episodes are served to illustrate the puzzle; Ideology and design, Approach and image, Standardized design, Prefabrication, Dissidence (?), Atheism, The National Form, and Architecture as communication tool.

Through these thematic etudes it is legible how, in many cases, architecture is transformed into a medium, enabling communication between the political power and citizens. Architectural or urban entities become the ground upon which the propaganda is materialized into form or space, and where ideology continuously models the artistic worldview.