Embodied Memory

Artists: Nikolin Bujari, Orestia Kapedani, Erald Nezaj, Ferdinand Paci, Remijon Pronja, Nurhan Qehaja, Anila Rubiku. Curated by Rrezearta Agasi, Sara Boci, Sigi Buzi, Dejvi Dauti, Paola Iljazi, Anyla Kabashi, Ana Lushaj, Besmira Rraci, Erilda Selaj, Jozefina Vokrri, Keit Zaloshnja.

The exhibition Embodied Memory traced the unstable distance between lived experience and historical narrative, the gap between what happened and how it is remembered, between what is carried in bodies and what survives in images, objects and stories. Seven Albanian artists from different generations reflected on the endurance of identity and agency against narratives of totalitarianism, nationalism, violence and their consequences. 

Curated by the participants of Curating with Care II, it brought together art works that approach the body as a vessel for memory and history, mapping a multitude of recollections and tracing their lineage back to a difficult and violent past. Each generation—those who lived under totalitarian rule, those whose lives have been in perpetual transition, and those who came after them—continues to store remnants of that past that appear in their art and in life. Emerging in a terrain shaped by trauma, silence, labour, flight, and resistance, forms and gestures of collective memory reveal how the past continues to reconfigure the present. 

The tension between past and present is reflected in the exhibition space itself. Vila 31 in Tirana, once the residency of dictator Enver Hoxha, has, for 52 years since its construction, exerted a physical and psychological presence that haunted the collective psyche of multiple generations. Recently accessible to the public and repurposed as a culture hub, it has opened up questions about a shared responsibility toward practices of remembrance related to Albania’s dictatorial past, especially in a society that has only dealt with it in fragments, never fully reckoning with its aftermath.

Embodied Memory is the closing exhibition curated by the participants of Curating with Care II, a four month educational program in Tirana whose second edition focused on curatorial practices dealing with the past. It positions the curator as a mediator between past and present, reshaping collective memory, engaging overlooked histories, and fostering dialogue on resilience and identity. 

Curating with Care is founded and directed by Adela Demetja, while block seminars were facilitated by esteemed speakers, including Giulia Avanza, Arnold Braho, Genti Gjikola, Blerta Hoçia, Dalwin Kryeziu, Elena Sorokina, and Elian Stefa.

Curating with Care II is an educational curatorial program developed by Tirana Art Lab—Center for Contemporary Art, in partnership with Istituto Italiano di Cultura Tirana, Vila 31 x Art Explora, Goethe Zentrum Tirana, and supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports of Albania.