Tirana
Colorful facades

The colorful facades of Tirana are probably the first thing that strikes any person visiting the city for the first time. A playful mosaic aimed at hiding uglier elements, such as poor constructions, destroyed pavements, pollution, children begging? The urban cosmetics of the city mayor, Edi Rama, deserve more thorough attention.
Edi Rama considers the city his artwork. Easy to imagine him, sitting in front of his computer, and impulsively bucketing facades with his Photoshop program before sending painting squads to the targeted buildings… What do Tirana inhabitants think of the artistic “dictatorship” of this touch-all mayor (and artist, and basketball player, and former minister of culture)? The question in September 2003 Tirana was not merely rhetorical. The participants of the Tirana Biennial 2 landed in the midst of the municipal elections campaign. A touch of folklore… In the electoral stands, you were given bags, T-shirts, and stickers with a drawing of the children of Edi Rama. You were told about the rap song he had recorded (words on the other side of the bag) and the video-clip he had made with a French TV crew (a visionary mayor with good marketing strategies). Every proponent of Edi Rama explained you that this man was embodying the new Albania (the democratic one), that he was an extremely courageous politician (he had been victim of one assassination attempt), and so on. For the biennial opening party, all the participants were invited to the HQ tent of Rama. Was he not one of the main supporters of the biennial? And, after all, the most important was to be aware of the political manipulation behind such invitation, wasn’t it? Is there something more exciting, for enlightened artists and curators, than cultural participation in national democratic transition? It justifies silencing some stupid ethical scruples.

Portrait of Edi Rama: work by Redas Dirzys