Blockwork #2
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Author Archives: lediakostandini
Blockwork
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“Blockwok” is a project that consists in cutting and transferring parts of the urban architecture into other contexts.
Different structures or elements which are usually extracted from informal parts of buildings, turn into construction blocks.
I practically paste on wall printed photographic images almost in real dimension. Then it gets developed as a wall painting which may better be called a graphic translation of concrete material.
Displacing certain bizarre structures from the urban environment to other context is a way to single them out and look them from a closer distance. “Blockwork” occupies a wall or a space in order to establish a different approach on the urban landscape which is representing the aesthetics of the informal urbanism.
“Blockwork” project was exhibited at “Tulla Culture Center”-Tirana, on May 2016.
Domino Effect
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These concrete blocks, looking so much alike the Berlin wall parts were used in Albania to build silage storage during agriculture collectivism. Nowadays, they belong to no one.
They seem monuments dedicated to “public property”.
The intervention is like a signature, transforming a futile thing into a provocative object.
Below, you may watch a you-tube video, extracted from Vizion+ Channel news. This video speaks about this urban art-piece and about people’s feedback latter on.
The work got exhibited in Berlin, on November 2015 at Neurotitan Gallery. Click here to get more info about the exhibition.
Domino Effect at Neurotitan Gallery
Domino Effect at Neurotitan Gallery
Domino Effect at Neurotitan Gallery
Falling Blocks
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“Falling Blocks” is a site specific intervention installed near Laç. It was presented as a part of Tirana Art Lab’s project “100 km Art”. The artist is symbolically reconstructing an existing never-ending building. She adapts her colourful sketchy-style pieces (columns, stairs, rods) to the bare surface of concrete columns.
Click here for more information about “100 KM ART” project.
When I look into the mirror
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“When I look into the mirror” is an ongoing series of photographs which deals with ambivalence and cohabitation. I place a square mirror in front of different backgrounds, chasing ambiguous situations. The reflected image obviously corresponds to what’s on the backside of the photographer. Still, the mirror view is invited to play the main part in the final composition. Juxtaposing two opposed sides in a single image is a trick I use to visualize the space around me.
The photographs have been shown at the Art Market Budapest on October 2015, at ZetaGallery exhibitor.
Recent scent
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This is a temporary intervention inside a former restaurant called “Oktapodi”. 30 years ago, this building was a state property. It has been the favorite dinning place in town during the 80’es. Now, completely amortized, the building changed its purpose 100%. Returning to childhood memories, the artist uses special dough to cook and bake 100 shit-looking pieces. After carrying them to the place, the artist spreads them on pavement among real stinky shit pieces.
Tubes
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Untitled
Dot to Dot
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Comfort zone
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Comfort zone is a series of installations that pushes function to its limits, leading to the nonfunctional. The sense of discomfort is highlighted to the point of absurdity.
Heat Seat
Tighten
Fancy haystack
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Picks from installation process >>>
Purchasing silence
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Cartoon Movies
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This work is inspired from the old Albanian movies, which may be considered as the only uncontested echo of communism into our daily life. Today, they lost their ideological incantation, turning to be a source of nostalgia, or some kind of reference to reconsider our current system. Being an amateur of the vast collection of old Albanian movies, I began to photograph my TV screen, so I could take out and collect different characters, objects and scenes. Then I started to create another “scenarios” by engaging old cinematography to current media affairs. This juxtaposition is somehow similar to the way we daily receive all sorts of information when using a remote control.
“Foodish” – installations
In “Foodish”, the aesthetics of the body becomes the main subject, underlining the contemporary society’s obsession or paranoia about food and image.
“Foodish” – collages
Building our nation
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In “Building our nation”, Kostandini’s subject is the moving image as
carrier and diffuser of ideologies and propaganda. In a playful way she juxtaposes black and white images of characters from the propaganda films during communist period
in Albania with colorful backgrounds of Hollywood films or images borrowed from the incessant flow of local media. Each painting contains also a soundtrack, consisting of bits
of audio pertaining to the films or the news chronicles from which the images have been borrowed. By installing all the audio players in the same place the viewer is challenged
to identify the image/audio combination as well as conceive of his/her own reading of the works. The installation problematises the role of images in a media dominated
society, hinting on the similarities of their use for propagandistic or ideological ends, either from the former communist nomenclature, or from today’s neoliberal free market,
and profit driven corrupted governments.
text by Edi Muka
