Tubes | Site specific work by Ledia Konstandini

An exhibition by Swiss and Albanian artists will turn the 100km stretch of highway connecting Tirana and Shkodra into an open air gallery on September 29.

Eight contemporary artists will exhibit at selected locations on the highway in an attempt to bring art closer to people and connect the two cultural centres of Albania’s past and present.

“Whereas Tirana is today’s creative and artistic capital, Shkodra is the oldest and biggest city in the north of the country, with an important tradition in art but also music and film,” the organizers said in a statement.

The exhibition will feature works by Nikolin Bujari, Kueng Caputo, Ledia Kostandini, Matilda Odobashi, Guadalupe Ruiz, Susanne Schar & Peter Spillmann, Studio 203 & Romeo Kodra and Johannes Willi.

The project by the Tirana Art Lab brings together artists that use public spaces in their work. A bus tour will be organized on Sunday to visit the exhibit sites along the highway, while the project will be turned into a documentary by filmmaker Olsi Hoxha.

The exhibition combines the experience of Swiss artists who use art in public spaces – a phenomenon in Switzerland with a long tradition – and the familiarity of local artists with the landscape of Tirana and Shkodra.

“Besides some historical monuments as signs of identity and statues of national heroes mostly situated in city centres, there’s not much art in the public space in Albania,” said the curators Adela Demetja and Eveline Wuthrich.

“By leaving the enclosed space of the museum but also the actual city, the project aims to go one step further and engage with a new territory while addressing a different public,” they added. balkaninsight