Performative Exhibition #4 - Written Cave
DATE: 19 October - 7 November 2024
A collaboration between Tirana Art Lab and the Gallery of Digital Arts Korçë
Featuring: Enza Rripaj, Abi Shehu, Vasil Tole, Alexander Walmsley
Curated by: Adela Demetja and Fabio Toska
19.10-03.11.2024
Gallery of Digital Arts Korçë
"Performative Exhibition #4 - Written Cave" brings together the works of four contemporary artists from different disciplines and generations: Enza Rripaj, Abi Shehu, Vasil Tole, and Alexander Walmsley. At the core of the created art works, is the archaeological richness of the Korça and Devoll regions. During the prehistoric era, the entire area of Korça and Devoll experienced significant human life development, which is still reflected today in the numerous settlements in this geographical area. Part of this map are also two archaeological sites, which are indicative of our cultural heritage: the rock paintings in the Written Cave and the settlement in the cave of Tren across from Small Prepa Lake.
According to studies, the Tren cave has been used almost continuously as a settlement for 3 millennia, starting from the Neolithic era (7000-3000 BC) until the Early Middle Age (6th-7th centuries AD), while the rock painting of the Written Cave, which is located just a few hundred meters from the cave, dates back to the Bronze Age, around 3,500 years ago. The rock painting depicts a hunting scene, where people stand out riding horses, armed with spears and accompanied by dogs, who are together chasing a deer. Thanks to the content it carries, the painting is valued as a unique example of prehistoric art for the entire Balkan region. Furthermore, the natural landscape surrounding the archaeological sites is part of the Prespa National Park, home to a number of rare species and a diverse flora, providing a breathtaking panorama.
In August of this year, a group of artists and curators conducted a research phase in the Korça and Devoll area with the aim of creating new artistic works. The result of this engagement is Performative Exhibition #4 where virtual reality, video, music, photography, installation and text intersect. Drawing inspiration from archaeology and prehistory, as well as the reintroduction of their elements through the perspective of contemporary art, is a great opportunity for engaging with cultural heritage, especially that important part located in peripheral and not easily accessible spaces.
In conceptual terms, Performative Exhibition #4 - Written Cave explores the relationship between the symbolism of the cave (habitat) and writing (sign) by reintroducing these archaic elements with new means. The exhibition explores the importance of language as an agency to transmit archaic forms of communication. The concept aligns with the theory of Swiss structuralist philosopher Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), whose ideas in the field of semiology present a bilateral interpretation of signs as a communicative act that separates the signifier, which can be a word, an image, or a sound, and on the other hand, the signified, or in other words, the meaning conveyed. The written epithet (as in Written Cave) emerges as a form of communication in pre-alphabetic societies, where alphabetical writing was not known, but the message was transmitted through various signs and images, which transformed are displayed today after a long journey through time. Through the created works, the diachronic relationship between ancient and contemporary motives is explored, intertwining the symbolism of the cave as a habitat and a transition from light to darkness, from inside out, as well as marking as a communicative and transferable act.
Performative Exhibition is a format created by Tirana Art Lab - Center for Contemporary Art with the intention to disclose exhibiting and to make public through performativity not only the process of artistic creation and curating, but also find ways to include in the exhibiting process and the means of production behind and beyond the event itself. The concept of “Performative Exhibition” aims to find new ways of exhibiting and curating which break with the temporary / unique features of the contemporary exhibition and propose enduring ways of working together.
This project is supported by the Ministry of Economy, Culture, and Innovation. The research phase and the travel of Alexander Walmsley was supported by Culture Moves Europe, a project funded by the European Union.
