The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Albania announces its participation in the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia with Albanian Trilogy: A Series of Devious Stratagems, a project by Armando Lulaj, curated by Marco Scotini, hosted in the spaces of the Arsenale. A reflection on Albanian social history, a single narrative corpus articulated over three distinct moments: Albanian Trilogy is a sort of museum machine of the past, with strange memorabilia and trophies which presents, contemporaneously, fiction and documentary material. Combining evocation and documentation, the project concentrates on a historic-political phase that was extremely important for the building of an identity that was not just Albanian but international. On display are three videos and archive material, as well as an enormous whale’s skeleton which is both protagonist and silent witness - an incarnation of the giant-Leviathan, the Hobbesian principle of sovereignty. For Armando Lulaj (Tirana, 1980) Albanian Trilogy represents the conclusion of many years of research into the period of the Cold War in Albania and, in particular, on the relative themes of collective memory and historic experience, brought together in a film trilogy. The first work in this series is It Wears as It Grows (2011), the second piece of the trilogy is the well known project NEVER (2012), while the third video, Recapitulation (2015) was createdspecifically for the Art Biennale 2015. Lulaj’s work plays, above all, on the lapses in history: as the curator, Marco Scotini, states: “it reveals an unstable terrain where one expects to find potent and unmovable representations.”

In Albanian Trilogy, Lulaj’s artistic research into the specters of socialism and Scotini’s curatorial research on the politics of memory arrive at an important common result. The project was selected through an open call with an international jury chaired by Boris Groys and consisting of Kathrin Rhomberg, Adrian Paci, Alberto Heta and a representative of the Department of Culture. The jury, whose decision was unanimous, motivated its choice stating: “With Albanian Trilogy, Armando Lulaj follows an investigation into the available interpretations of Albanian history from the Cold War through to today, reintroducing images that were once highly representative, politically intense and narrations that are still rooted in the visual memory of the population, in a manner that goes well beyond a subjective discussion of national history, in order to push towards a general analysis of the ruins and failures of modernity”. The publication, in the form of a historical atlas, edited by Sternberg Press, was seen as an extension of the exhibition and includes, amongst others, contributions from Hou Hanru, Boris Groys and Marco Scotini.

Armando Lulaj (Tirana, 1980) lives and works in Tirana. He is a playwright, director and the author of texts and videos on areas of danger and images of conflict. Amongst his more important personal exhibitions are: UNTITLED, Galleria Cavour, Bologna (2014); Fiend, National Theatre, Tirana (2013); Cold Wind 2, Arte Fiera Bologna (2013), Cold Wind, Volta8, Basel (2012); No More Feelings, Paolo Maria Deanesi Gallery, Rovereto (2012); No Mercy, Artra Gallery, Milano (2011); Silent Soziale Corruption, Lothringer13 e Städtische Kunsthalle München (2010). He has participated in numerous international exhibitions, amongst which are: Lost in Landscape, MART, Rovereto (2014); The Empty Pedestal, Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna (2014); Utopian Days, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, South Korea (2014); 63rd Berlinale Film Festival, Berlin (2013); 6th Berlin Biennial (2010); 8th Baltic Biennale of Contemporary Art, Szczecin (2009); 4th Gothenburg Biennial (2007); Albanian Pavilion, 52nd International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia (2007); Tirana Biennial (2005) and the Prague Biennial (2003 and 2007).