Voloshyn Gallery is delighted to present works by Abi Shehu at Liste Art Fair 2024!
Abi's three series of works, presented at the fair, revolve around an exploration of the extent of intimacy alongside the destructive forces of history. Through three distinct series, her works transcend temporal boundaries, seamlessly merging contemporary materials and concepts with the ancient echoes captured on the surfaces of her art pieces.
In her installation "see, once more, the stars," Shehu invites viewers to journey into the depths of family history, using the caves of the Vjosa River in Albania as a poignant backdrop. The Vjosa is one of the last wild rivers in Europe, known for its underground passages and unexplored caves. Shot in stark black and white, these caves serve as a canvas for the artist's deeply personal narrative - a story of her father's migration after the fall of the oppressive communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. By depicting the underground labyrinth as a metaphorical inferno, Shehu skillfully interweaves her own reflections with a broader commentary on the mass migration spurred by Hoxhaʼs autocratic rule. The choice to photograph this river is also no coincidence: the Vjosa flows from the mountains of Greece to the Adriatic coast of Albania, in the opposite direction, as a symbolic testament to her fatherʼs intercepted escape, while also celebrating darkness as a realm ripe for introspection and resilience.
Shehu portrays these underworld sites as a Dantesque hell, weaving her personal evocations into a larger narrative about the mass migration process triggered by Hoxha’s autocracy, where fugitives’ routes despairingly developed in the direction opposite to the river flow. Darkness remains a potent space for survival in the artist’s mythology, a space for the cultivation of attentive vision. Darkness challenges the knowledge of routes, whether these are the routes of escape, foraging, or transmission.
In another series, titled "Saharaja," Shehu delves into the theme of collective amnesia, drawing inspiration from the forgotten history of the Spaç political prison in Albania. Through a video installation comprising stacked vintage television sets, each flickering with repetitive animations based on graffiti found within the prison's ruins, Shehu sheds light on the enduring legacy of oppression and resistance. The animation is based on photographic images of graffiti (drawings, inscriptions, and signs) found on the walls of the ruins of the notorious former prison and labor camp Spaç (1968–1990). In poor physical condition due to insufficient conservation, the graffiti of the Spaç camp is presented as an almost archaeological object documented by photographs. They are indeed a valuable testament to the history of the buildings and the existence of the people who suffered in them. Although the graffiti seems to belong to the last years of the prison's existence (1987–1990) and their origin cannot be formally confirmed, they manage to convey a kind of existential aura and introduce us to the psyche and imagination of the prisoners of this prison, known for its harsh conditions and extreme cruelty.
The aesthetics of this graffiti, in addition to the historical and anthropological value that the building of the former Spaç prison carries, do not stand apart from the aesthetics of public graffiti, which were common in the 1980s and 1990s in schools, dormitories, barracks, and factories, described by Foucault as corresponding to the regime of closed and organized environments (where prison is the most extreme environment) in the function of production. This environment evokes rejection, resistance, and avoidance. It is no coincidence that these images are mostly banal television stereotypes and revolve around sex, advertising, sports, foreign films, dangerous enemies of discipline, and the official ideology of the political regime. It is no coincidence that among the graffiti, one can see TV sets as the only windows from which Albanians of those years could reach them. That's why Abi Shehu uses old TV sets — objects that Albanians cherished in the years we are talking about. These poignant visuals serve as a poignant reminder of the individuals who suffered within Spaç's walls, their voices echoing through time via the medium of graffiti—a poignant blend of historical documentation and artistic expression.
A diptych of photographs entitled "Barren" captures the ghostly essence of Sazan, Albania, through the lens of Abi Shehu. These images offer a poignant glimpse into the fate of a deserted island in the Mediterranean, shrouded in the mystery of a military exclusion zone. Shedu delves into the island's long history, marked by centuries of conflict, partition, and war. The barren landscape serves as a stark canvas on which echoes of ancient civilizations and contemporary geopolitical tensions converge. Through the artist's discerning eye, viewers are invited to contemplate the complex interplay between human presence and absence, the resilience of nature, and the lasting scars of history etched into the land. The works were created as part of the ARTiLERIA Sazan project by Galeria e Bregdetit, Vlorë, Albania.
Booth 35
Liste Art Fair Basel 2024
Monday, 10 June – Sunday, 16 June 2024
VIP Preview, Monday, 11 AM – 6 PM
Public opening, Monday, 6 – 8 PM
Tuesday – Saturday, 12 – 8 PM
Sunday, 11 AM – 4 PM
Messe Basel, Hall 1.1
Maulbeerstrasse / corner Riehenring 113
4058 Basel, Switzerland
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