The Urgent (artist) Toolkit
Group Publication, Bulevard Art & Media Institute, Tirana, 2024.
The Urgent (artist) Atelier is a programme that was conceived by starting from the question of ‘urgencies’ in art, as a way to learn from within an intimate journey to then join the personal to the political: how can your personal urgency, including your fragilities and doubts, support those of the collective that you are part of?
The programme invited artists, curators, activists, writers, researchers, activists, publishers and collectives that have been in dialogue with the Bulevard programme through previous work, or were envisioning collaboration for the future. Guests included local artists and cultural actors, (Academy of Others, Stefano Romano, Matilda Odobashi, Tea Çuni, Abi Shehu, Jonida Gashi, Aleanca LGBTQ) from the Albanian diaspora (Glen Çaci, Arniza Zeqo, Silvi Naçi), as well as international guests (Francesco Bertelé, Fully Funded Residency, Laura Haby, Rina Meta, Eljeza Beka, Max Parnell). This curatorial choice is embedded in Bulevard's commitment to building lasting relationships and opening possibilities, for activating new independent networks to continue fostering dialogue and research within their context in Albania.
The meetings with the guests took place in the spaces of Bulevard that had been left completely available to the young artists to inhabit during Autumn 2023, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Two major public talks were also curated, inviting colleagues whose urgencies for imagining different, seemingly impossible architectures for a museum of contemporary art (Olya Balashova, Yuliia Hnat, MOCA ngo, Ukraine) or decolonising ones in relation to knowledge and love (Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti, DAAR). The latter two were developed in places of two of the major current war conflicts: Palestine and Ukraine.
Photography by Nadia Abazi @nadiaabazi
Group Publication, Bulevard Art & Media Institute, Tirana, 2024.
The programme invited artists, curators, activists, writers, researchers, activists, publishers and collectives that have been in dialogue with the Bulevard programme through previous work, or were envisioning collaboration for the future. Guests included local artists and cultural actors, (Academy of Others, Stefano Romano, Matilda Odobashi, Tea Çuni, Abi Shehu, Jonida Gashi, Aleanca LGBTQ) from the Albanian diaspora (Glen Çaci, Arniza Zeqo, Silvi Naçi), as well as international guests (Francesco Bertelé, Fully Funded Residency, Laura Haby, Rina Meta, Eljeza Beka, Max Parnell). This curatorial choice is embedded in Bulevard's commitment to building lasting relationships and opening possibilities, for activating new independent networks to continue fostering dialogue and research within their context in Albania.
The meetings with the guests took place in the spaces of Bulevard that had been left completely available to the young artists to inhabit during Autumn 2023, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Two major public talks were also curated, inviting colleagues whose urgencies for imagining different, seemingly impossible architectures for a museum of contemporary art (Olya Balashova, Yuliia Hnat, MOCA ngo, Ukraine) or decolonising ones in relation to knowledge and love (Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti, DAAR). The latter two were developed in places of two of the major current war conflicts: Palestine and Ukraine.
Photography by Nadia Abazi @nadiaabazi