Sweet Taboos // Edi Muka

What happens to old inhibitions in today’s swell of globalization? Does the old Polynesian term “taboo” still have meaning, or have such notions disappeared in the “everything goes” drive of global Capital? Is this overwhelming drive actually the biggest taboo of our time? To what extent do the power structures of our society differ from those of the past, and is history still relevant?

These and many other questions were at the center of our quest to find collaborators when we conceived the third edition of the Tirana Biennale. As the five consecutive exhibitions that composed the Biennale unfolded, we witnessed how the poetry of art and contemporary artistic operation deals with such issues by focusing on practices of re-appropriation rather than mere critique. The selection made for this “Mini-Tirana Biennale” presented at apexart includes the work of seven artists that participated in the exhibitions of the last Tirana Biennale. Their works offer a testimony to engaged artistic practices that provide us with examples of what could be considered our contemporary taboos, and shows how these relate to our history or our present condition. Furthermore, they equip us with a repertory of tactics for dealing with taboos artistically, and demonstrate how art itself can be a tool with which to respond to changes in our global socio-political landscape.

Edi Muka is is a freelance curator based in Tirana and Stockholm. He is co-founder and co-director of the Tirana Biennale, and teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts, Tirana.

Pressetext

Sweet Taboos
A Mini Tirana Biennale in New York
Kurator: Edi Muka

mit Adel Abdessemed, Ivan Grubanov, Ingrid Mwangi, Robert Hutter, Sejla Kameric, Armando Lulaj, Suela Qoshja, Joanna Rytel