The installation ‹Burning Bridges› was first shown in Riehen (near Basel) at the exhibition ‹Concrete in Common› (2012). It is a reproduction of an Albanian living room during the dictatorship. The furniture was designed and manufactured in the ‹Misto Mame› furniture factory, the principal furniture manufacturer during the period of totalitarian government in Albania. This furniture was the only type of furniture in the urban milieu. The typical signs of the time are visible - the omnipresent sideboard, the armchairs, the settee. The bookshelf resembles a political library, including books by and on the communist dictator Enver Hoxha, the leader of the Party of Labour of Albania - and on the wall, in between various handicrafts, a portrait of the dictator himself.
To the exhibition ‹BURNING BRIDGES›
Enver Hoxha ruled Albania from 1945 until his death in 1985. In the first phase of his rule, he was recognised for modernising Albania; however, from the 1960s onwards he isolated the country from the rest of the world and used fear and paranoia to retain power. Hoxha burned all the bridges to the country's allies, resulting in Albania being excluded from the Warsaw Pact, and called any government that would try to attack and destroy Albania his political foe.
After the political upheaval and the opening of Albania's borders, these books were burned on the streets by the younger generation and the furniture from the Communist era was also slowly but surely replaced.
Entrance free
Fr 01.11., 19.00 h, OPENING
Fr 29.11. CLOSING with DJ Jewls from Zurich
Every wednesday in november the BALKANBARROOMPOLITICS will take place at 19.30 h at flatterschafft.
