La Société Spectrale
La Société Spectrale is an Albanian art collective founded in 2017 by Armando Lulaj, Jonida Gashi, and Pleurad Xhafa. The collective took its name from the “ghost companies” that appeared during the rise of Pyramid schemes in Albania in the 1990s and whose collapse culminated in the 1997 Albanian civil unrest.[1]
Works
[edit]The collective has been engaged in curatorial projects, such as Moving Billboard,[2][3] video productions such as HUNTINGAMES (2019),[4] and installations that consistently question the role of local government in their engagement with Albanian contemporary art, but also today’s role of foreign policy and the United States of America in shaping Albanian identity.[5]
The installation Teatri (2020) features objects, furniture, and props from the National Theatre of Albania recovered from Sharra landfill near Tirana after its destruction.[6] The Yellow House (2020) is an art installation of a row of wooden beams once belonging to the so-called "Yellow House" roof located in the village of Gurrë, Burrel, Albania.[7] The beams had been acquired directly from the house’s owners.[8] A highly contested site of alleged war crimes against hundreds of Serbians and Kosovar collaborators during the Kosovo War, the "Yellow House" was first featured in Carla Del Ponte’s The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals and subsequently in an investigative report[9] by Dick Marty from 2010. None of the alleged war crimes allegedly committed in the Yellow House have so far been proven.[10][11] Ambasada (2021–) features the growing collection of furniture acquired by La Société Spectrale from the regular auctions[12] organized by the Embassy of the United States, Tirana. Most of these historical items are American colonial style furniture dating back to the early 20th century, including pieces by Drexel Heritage and The Company of Master Craftsmen, which also produced furniture for The White House.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ Isto, Raino (8 November 2023). ""Activating the Power to Desert History Itself": Raino Isto and La Société Spectrale discuss Moving Billboard, Part 1". Linking Art Worlds. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ "Moving Billboard". DebatikCenter. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ "Eden Eden Eden 2 – Moving Billboard". DebatikCenter. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ "HUNTINGAMES (2019) by La Société Spectrale". YouTube. DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art. 17 March 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ Isto, Raino (9 November 2023). ""Activating the Power to Desert History Itself": Raino Isto and La Société Spectrale discuss Moving Billboard, Part 2". Linking Art Worlds. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ "The House That Woodrow Built". DebatikCenter. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ "The House That Woodrow Built". DebatikCenter. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ Demokracia (8 July 2022). "Lajme Instalacion artistik në Tiranë për ta demantuar rrëfimin e "Shtëpisë së Verdhë"". Demokracia. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ Marty, Dick (12 December 2010). Inhuman treatment of people and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo (PDF). CoE Parliamentary Assembly. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ Thorpe, Nick (27 May 2010). "End of the road for Kosovo organ claims?". BBC. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ Ristic, Marija (4 September 2015). "Kosovo Organ-Trafficking: How the Claims were Exposed". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ "How it works". Tirana Online Auction. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
- ^ "The House That Woodrow Built". DebatikCenter. Retrieved 15 October 2024.