MANIFESTO Hijacking: exhibition and public talks

DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art (DCCA) is pleased to present MANIFESTO. A collaboration with ZETA Contemporary Art Center in Tirana, MANIFESTO comprises an exhibition, a series of public talks and performances, a publication series on art and politics, and the launch of several online projects. These projects collectively strike at the foundations that bind together contemporary art and oligarchic power, gnawing at networks of neoimperialism and proposing new foundations for solidarity and resistance. 

MANIFESTO starts from the premise that the state machinery in Albania has captured the artistic means of representation, turning contemporary art into a mechanism for systematically providing cultural capital and overall legitimacy to a corrupt financial and political elite. This oligarchic elite obscures itself behind bureaucracy at the same time that it abuses the private data of its citizens, and it uses the language of global contemporary art (not to mention its funding streams and professional networks) to distract from its own violence. From the ruins of this broken narrative, MANIFESTO sets out to assemble new histories of the present, to build a museum that never stops growing—a museum of neoimperialism and neocolonialism, and at the same time a museum of resistance. Truths are piling up in the halls of this museum, coiling like snakes, buzzing like hornets. It is time for a new wave to come. 

MANIFESTO has seen the great spectacle of disaster, conflagration, and decomposition: it is the spectacle that we are all now living. To dismantle this spectacle, the organizers of MANIFESTO proclaim the need for a HIJACKING. Every spectator is a plotter—yes, and every spectator is a hijacker. MANIFESTO is the name for a spontaneous sneaking into the logics and the architectures of corruption, of neocolonialism, of artwashing. Hijacking won’t wash out. 

MANIFESTO begins on July 4, 11am, with The Press Conference at Tirana International Hotel, curated by Sonja Lau, at which Ataol Kaso will read his poem “Vulnerable Living in Tirana,” a text derived from leaked information that the Albanian Socialist Party had gathered on its citizens in preparation for influencing voting behavior in the most recent round of elections. On the evening of July 4, at 7pm, the collective La Société Spectrale (David Kampi, Jonida Gashi, and Pleurad Xhafa) will open their exhibition The House That Woodrow Built at ZETA Contemporary Art Center. Curated by Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, and accompanied by a catalog featuring architectural diagrams by Jora Kasapi, this exhibition presents a collection of troubling archival remainders that haunt the subconscious of contemporary Albanian politics.

A series of public talks will take place at ZETA during the duration of the MANIFESTO project. On July 5, 7pm, German curator Sonja Lau will present “The Violent Curator.” On July 6, 7pm, American art historian Raino Isto will present “Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake.” Finally, on September 11, 7pm, Albanian art theorist Jonida Gashi will present “Art as a Medium of Truth.” On September 9, Albanian activists Redon Skikuli and Boris Budini will organize CryptoParty 2022, a workshop and gathering in which members of the public will learn about strategies for protecting their private information from corporate and government entities. 

MANIFESTO also includes the launch of several online projects, including Relational Aesthetics, a map of the connections between the global art world and Albanian politics; Nothing to Hide, an application that empowers citizens to map the systems that surveil them in public space; and Internet War, an ongoing conceptual text project by Italian artist Marco Mazzi.  

DebatikCenter of Contemporary Art is a nexus of artists, academics, activists, architects, imaginary and real collectives, critics, curators, journalists, translators, etc., who seek to shine a light on authoritarian practices in Albania, but also to offer the necessary tools to imagine alternative futures and strategies of resistance to the status quo.

Contact: info.debatikcenter [​at​] gmail.com. 

Summary of events:
The Press Conference: July 4, 11am–12pm
Tirana International Hotel, “Metropol” Room, Tirana, Albania.

The House That Woodrow Built: July 4, 7–9pm
Exhibition open from July 4 till September 11 at ZETA Contemporary Art Center.

The Violent Curator: July 5, 7–9pm
A lecture by Sonja Lau at ZETA Contemporary Art Center.

Snakes: Capitalist Realism: July 6, 7–9pm
A lecture by Raino Isto at ZETA Contemporary Art Center.

CryptoParty 2022: September 9, 5–9pm
A workshop about protecting personal data by Redon Skikuli and Boris Budini at ZETA Contemporary Art Center.

Art as a Medium of Truth: September 11, 7–9pm
A lecture by Jonida Gashi at ZETA Contemporary Art Center.