Reclaiming industrial heritage through affect: art interventions in the ruined factories of post-socialist Albania
Reclaiming industrial heritage through affect: art interventions in the ruined factories of post-socialist Albania
This chapter explores the post-socialist condition using as an entry point the under-represented industrial ruination in Albania. This is developed by discussing three specific art projects that work with post-industrial ruined sites in Albania: Enisa Cenaliaj’s performance Welcome Dear Workers (2005) at the former Stalin Textile Factory in Tirana, the site-specific installations of the exhibition Informal Mind (2014), taking place at the ruins of the Metallurgical Factory in Elbasan, and Driant Zeneli’s video installation Maybe the Cosmos Is Not So Extraordinary (2019). The chapter argues that post-industrial ruined spaces are sites of modern heritage which can offer an alternative reading of the socialist history, transforming the difficult knowledge of the past into critical articulations about the conditions that define the present.
post-industrialism, affect, post-socialist, collective memory, Heritage Cultures, art practice, Albania
145-168
Amsterdam University Press
Gkitsa, Dimitra
56cef9a1-10c4-4c8a-978b-51139c04fc74
17 June 2024
Gkitsa, Dimitra
56cef9a1-10c4-4c8a-978b-51139c04fc74
Gkitsa, Dimitra
(2024)
Reclaiming industrial heritage through affect: art interventions in the ruined factories of post-socialist Albania.
In,
Guerin, Frances and Szczesniak, Magda
(eds.)
Visual Cultures of Post-Industrial Europe.
Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Amsterdam University Press, .
(doi:10.2307/jj.15552477.9).
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Abstract
This chapter explores the post-socialist condition using as an entry point the under-represented industrial ruination in Albania. This is developed by discussing three specific art projects that work with post-industrial ruined sites in Albania: Enisa Cenaliaj’s performance Welcome Dear Workers (2005) at the former Stalin Textile Factory in Tirana, the site-specific installations of the exhibition Informal Mind (2014), taking place at the ruins of the Metallurgical Factory in Elbasan, and Driant Zeneli’s video installation Maybe the Cosmos Is Not So Extraordinary (2019). The chapter argues that post-industrial ruined spaces are sites of modern heritage which can offer an alternative reading of the socialist history, transforming the difficult knowledge of the past into critical articulations about the conditions that define the present.
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Accepted/In Press date: 19 March 2024
Published date: 17 June 2024
Keywords:
post-industrialism, affect, post-socialist, collective memory, Heritage Cultures, art practice, Albania
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 488468
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488468
PURE UUID: a5a749c7-4441-4cd8-b893-237e28df22d5
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Date deposited: 22 Mar 2024 17:49
Last modified: 08 Jun 2024 02:10
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Contributors
Author:
Dimitra Gkitsa
Editor:
Frances Guerin
Editor:
Magda Szczesniak
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