DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art (also styled D.C.C.A.) is a contemporary art center [1] and independent film production center [2] based in Tirana, Albania. D.C.C.A defines itself as "nexus of academics, activists, architects, artists, imaginary and real collectives, critics, curators, journalists, translators, etc., that seek to shine a light on these practices but also offer the necessary tools to imagine alternative futures and strategies of resistance to the status quo." [3]
The D.C.C.A. was founded in 2003 in Bologna by Armando Lulaj, Salvator Qitaj, and Ergin Zaloshnja, as a center for discussing and examining the country's social changes. [4] DebatikCenter took its name from the Albanian anti-fascist youth organization Debatik. D.C.C.A made its first appearance during "U-topos,” the 2nd Tirana Biennale in 2003, with the public performance "Brotherhood Phobia.” [5]
In 2017, D.C.C.A. reorganized under the direction of Armando Lulaj, Jonida Gashi, and Pleurad Xhafa, rethinking the objectives of the institution in relation to visual, cinematic, theoretical, and political arts. As a result, it embarked on an examination of Albania's past while maintaining a critical gaze on neo-liberal consolidation, focusing on social reality while proposing a new chapter in the country's historical narrative. [6] They also founded the art collective La Société Spectrale.
In the same year, D.C.C.A. started organizing a series of “Strikes,” compact performances and actions in public space, for example around the then recently renovated Skanderbeg Square, [7] featuring projects by Armando Lulaj, Pleurad Xhafa, La Société Spectrale, Underground Movement, Skarlet Hori, and others. Many of the Strikes were in direct response to political events and public works in Tirana.
In response to the illegal demolition of National Theatre of Albania, D.C.C.A. initiated in 2020 the drafting of a public letter against the artwashing tactics of the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama. [8] The letter was publicly released in Albanian, [9] French, [10] Italian, [11] and English, [12] gathering hundreds of signatures.
Moving Billboard (2018) brought together a group of international artists showing their work on twenty-four billboards across twenty-four locations in Tirana over the course of twenty-four hours for a single hour each. [13] The project focused on issues such as economic corruption and police brutality, environmental collapse, war, and terrorism. [14] Participating artists included Shuji Akagi, James Benning, Charlotte Beradt, Skarlet Hori, David Kampi, Shpëtim Koloshi, Katherine Liberovskaya, Underground Movement, Phil Niblock, Jun Jin, Sokol Peçi, Victor Strato, Tim Shaw, La Société Spectrale, and Wolfgang Staehle. [15]
A second iteration of ‘’Moving Billboard’’ was created in collaboration with art collective Manifesto as part of the project Manifesto Desertion (2023). [16] Collaborating and featured artists included Issam Badr, Zef Bumçi, Deniz Gezmiş, Barbad Golshiri, Martin Johnson Heade, Alban Hajdinaj, Osamu Kanemura, Theodore John Kaczynski, David Kampi, Edward Kienholz, Kiumars Pourahmad, Tong Lam, Chris Marker, Marco Mazzi, Pınar Öğrenci, The Question of Funding, Walid Raad, Sara Rahbar, Ketty La Rocca, Christoph Schlingensief, Alessandro Scotti, La Société Spectrale, Dziga Vertov, and Ian Wilson.
In 2022, D.C.C.A. started a collaboration with Zeta Center for Contemporary Art and the Manifesto art collective, developing a series of long-term projects: [17] Manifesto HIJACKING (2022), [18] [19] [20] [21] Manifesto DESERTION (2023), [22] [23] and Manifesto GREAT WAVE (2024). [24]
Over the years, DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art has collaborated with or shown works by many international artists, curators, and thinkers, often organizing their first showings in Albania. They include: Maryam Ashrafi, [25] Tatiana Bazzichelli, [26] Franco “Bifo” Berardi, [27] Simon Critchley, [28] Giovanni De Donà, [29] Arben Dedja, [30] Liu Ding, [31] Marco Gatto, [32] Gianluca Ghini, [33] Barbad Golshiri, [34] Yi Gu, [35] Çiçek İlengiz, [36] Vladan Jeremic, [37] David Kampi, [38] Elpida Karaba, [39] Thomas Logoreci, [40] Carol Yinghua Lu, [41] Michael Marder, [42] Luca Martignani, [43] Théodore Mclauchlin, [44] Viktor Misiano, [45] Stuart Munro, [46] Hadas Pe’ery, [47] Nina Power, [48] Theo Prodromidis, [49] Rena Rädle, [50] Ilya Repin, [51] Abderrahim Rossetti, Arjan Serjanaj, Zef Shoshi, [52] Ares Shporta, [53] Jonas Staal, [54] Ergin Zaloshnja, Despina Zefkili, [55] and Mark A. Weitz. [56]
Tirana is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea in the distance. It is among the wettest and sunniest cities in Europe, with 2,544 hours of sun per year.
Edi Rama is an Albanian politician and painter who has been serving as the 33rd and incumbent prime minister of Albania since 2013 and chairman of the Socialist Party of Albania since 2005. He was Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports from 1998 to 2000. First elected mayor of Tirana in 2000, he was reelected in 2003 and 2007.
Klubi i Futbollit Vllaznia Shkodër, commonly known as Vllaznia is an Albanian football club based in the city of Shkodër. It is the association football branch of the Vllaznia Sports Club, which was founded on 16 February 1919. It is also the oldest club in Albania which means it is the first club created in Albania. The club have competed in every edition of Kategoria Superiore since 1930, which is the top tier of football in Albania, besides in the 1956–57, 1961–62 and 2018–19 football seasons.
Marco Mazzi is an Italian multimedia artist, living and working in Tokyo, Florence, and Tirana. He worked as an editor in the publication of books of contemporary Japanese poetry, such as The Other Voice, the first Italian translation of Yoshimasu Gozo's poetry.
The Skanderbeg Square is the main plaza in the centre of Tirana, Albania. The square is named after the Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu. The total area is about 40,000 square metres. The Skanderbeg Monument dominates the square.
Kristaq Rama was an Albanian sculptor, art educator and a member of the Communist Party in Albania under Enver Hoxha's rule. He had close ties to Hoxha's communist regime. He was the father of current Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
The Pyramid of Tirana is a structure and former museum located in Tirana, the capital of Albania. It opened as a museum in 1988 and became a conference center in 1991 following the collapse of Communism. During the 1999 Kosovo War, the building was used as a NATO base. In 2018, a new project was unveiled that would turn the pyramid into a youth IT center for Creative Technologies with a focus on computer programming, robotics, and start ups under the name of TUMO Center Tirana. The renovated structure, transformed by MVRDV, was opened to the public in May 2023.
Adela Demetja is an Albanian art curator.
Klan is an Albanian language weekly political and finance magazine based in Tirana, Albania. The weekly provides economic and political news.
Përpjekja is an Albanian language quarterly culture and literary magazine published in Tirana, Albania.
Arena Kombëtare is an all-seater, multi-purpose football stadium located in the capital city of Tirana which was built on the ground of the former Qemal Stafa Stadium. The stadium has a seating capacity of 22,500 constituting the largest stadium in Albania.
Marco Scotini is an Italian curator, writer and art critic based in Milan, where he is artistic director of the FM Center for Contemporary Art and Head of the Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies Department at NABA.
For two years, artists and activists in Tirana, Albania, demonstrated to protect the historic National Theatre building from being demolished.
Armando Lulaj is an artist, playwright, filmmaker, and film producer, living and working in Tirana, Albania. His work “constantly negotiates the borders between economical power, fictional democracy and social disparity in a global context.” Lulaj is the founder of DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art. Lulaj has been called “one of the most prominent Albanian artists of his generation.” Since 2022, Lulaj is a member of the art collective Manifesto.
The Zeta Center for Contemporary Art, founded in 2007 by Valentina Koça, is an Albanian non-profit exhibition space.
Pleurad Xhafa is an artist, documentary filmmaker, and activist currently based in Tirana. Xhafa develops projects that examine the effects produced by neoliberal political experiments. His research and critical work result from a post-conceptual practice that operates on a documentary basis to subsequently report—visually and politically—on the culture of our time. Xhafa is one of the founders of DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art and is a member of art collective Manifesto.
Jonida Gashi is an Albanian cultural theorist and senior researcher at the Centre for Art Studies at the Academy of Sciences of Albania.
Manifesto is an art collective and intellectual movement composed of artists, filmmakers, curators, writers, art theorists, historians, architects, and publishers, from various countries, engaged in Albanian contemporary art. In collaboration with the DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art and ZETA Center for Contemporary Art, the Manifesto art collective has developed a series of projects, Manifesto Hijacking (2022), Manifesto Desertion (2023), and Manifesto Great Wave (2024), which offer a deconstruction of the Albanian art scene and the way it is enmeshed with the power of the Albanian oligarchy.
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.
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