[ALBSA-Info] Tirana's latest pyramid scheme

[Kreshnik Bejko]

Tirana's Latest Pyramid Scheme
By Geneva Anderson

Dec 18, 2000 -- (Central Europe Review) ICC Director Edi Muka dismissed

When Edi Muka, the director of Tirana's International Center of Culture 
(ICC), Albania's first and only center for contemporary art and culture, was 
fired by the Minister of Culture on 5 December without reason, it was a 
setback for the emerging Albanian art scene. It was also a signal from the 
powers that be that individual initiative can be very threatening and may 
not be rewarded.

31-year-old Muka—a well-known activist, curator and contemporary art teacher 
at Tirana's Fine Arts Academy—is credited with invigorating art in 
post-Communist Albania. Under Muka, the ICC, or "Pyramid," developed as a 
high-energy environment that entertained and educated the public with a 
constant array of exhibitions and arts performances, many of which were 
international in scale.

In Muka's absence, the center may lose the financial support for its USD 
100,000 Soros-funded Mediatheque, slated to open this January, and it will 
most likely lose its international reknown, the very lifeblood, along with 
funding, of an international contemporary institution in a transitional 
society such as Albania.

"Edi Muka has been the most effective PR agent for contemporary Albanian 
culture and the country itself that I can think of," said internationally 
known Bulgarian artist Luchezar Boyadjiev, recipient of the Grand Prix for 
foreign participant at the "Onfuri 98" exhibition in Tirana. "This is an 
international embarrassment."

"For over five years, Edi Muka has been a representative of the culture of 
change in Albania," echoed Dr Andreas Broeckmann, Artistic Director of 
Transmediale (Berlin). "His appointment as the Pyramid director was a sign 
of a new Albania opening up towards Europe and the world. His departure 
means the highly regrettable removal of a competent manager, an important 
curator, cultural networker and builder of bridges."

Replacement

Muka's successor, Shkelqim Daja, is a wild card. He has staged some outdoor 
festivals, but has little previous experience in arts management or in 
working with contemporary art. Even in Albania, this would be surprising 
were it not for the fact that the new minister of culture, Esmeralda Uruci, 
a mathematics and economics teacher from Shkodra, has no previous experience 
in cultural policy or in policy building.

"Normally, you replace a director of an important institution when you don't 
agree with the vision he has for running an institution," said Gezim Qendro, 
director of the National Gallery in Tirana.

"It is enough to compare the two CVs. Muka, besides being a painter, 
teacher, curator and lecturer all over Europe, has made an enormous 
contribution in the dissemination of information on Albanian art, its 
problems and achievements. He helped to break its long and absurd isolation 
from the rest of the world. Weren't his achievements in this very short 
period enough to show that he had the right vision and skills? Wasn't it a 
sign of confidence that the Soros Foundation gave him USD 100,000 for the 
Mediatheque project? For Daja there is no question of a curriculum vitae, 
because it is non-existent. The problem lies in the mess of this entire 
procedure of appointment and replacement."

Pyramid

The ICC is located within Tirana's landmark marble pyramid, on the capital's 
main street, Boulevard Deshmoret e Kombit, home to most of Albania's 
government institutions. This mammoth white structure is state-owned and 
comprises 11,000 square meters of prime commercial real estate leased out to 
both private and public clients.

The space is also highly symbolic for Albanians and has morphed along with 
successive regimes. Initially, it was a mausoleum (officially the "Enver 
Hoxha Memorial Museum"), inaugurated in 1988 as the final resting place of 
Albania's ruler, Enver Hoxha, the lord of life and death in Albania from 
1944 until his death in 1985.

With the fall of the Communist regime in 1991, Hoxha's corpse was evicted, 
just three years into its final rest.

In 1992, the Pyramid became in name Tirana's main cultural center devoted to 
promoting contemporary arts (visual and performing arts, music, film and 
culture). In reality, its various halls were better known for the hosting of 
consumer goods trade fairs.

It is Muka who is credited with the center's take-off, the merging of 
concept and design which, according to Stephen Kovats, former director of 
the Bauhaus Foundation's Electronic Media Forum, actively created cultural 
capital. "Albania, a virtual unknown on the international contemporary art 
scene, would remake this powerful symbol of its mystical gregarious 
socialist past into an internationally known art institution, an interface 
with the outside world of symbolic and highly practical value."

Collapsed vision

Throughout his 20-month tenure, Muka offered vision and bankable results. 
Albanian artists had professional exhibition space, young artists were 
supported, old ones were revived and new media art was strongly encouraged.

Muka brought back and exhibited artists who had left for the West: Anri 
Sala, Sislej Xhafa, Adrian Paci and others. In the meantime, he made sure 
that people recognized artists who lived and worked in Albania, such as 
Alban Hajdinaj, Flutura and Besnik Haxhillari and the older artist Edi Hila. 
He exhibited Kosovo artists Sokol Beqiri, Mehmet Behluli and Erzen 
Shkololli.

Moreover, he secured the Soros grant for the Mediatheque, a sophisticated 
public information center, the first of its kind in Albania, with a video 
archive, music library, Internet center and resource library. Slated to open 
in January 2001, the Mediatheque would have occupied 700 square meters 
within the ICC.

When Muka was dismissed, Soros halted the disbursement of the first tranche 
of the grant money, and the project was put on hold.

Muka had also worked with the German Embassy and the Goethe Institute to 
secure funding for Internet terminals for free public use at the new gallery 
space in the Pyramid. Upon his dismissal, that funding was pulled.

Muka rescued the project and transferred the USD 10,000 funding to the 
National Gallery. The result: in mid-December, five computers connected to 
the Internet will be available for free public use.

"The Pyramid became the place where people would expect something different 
to happen at least every week of the month," said Muka. "We started 
things—visual arts projects, a performing arts production center, music 
events—and we were starting to offer public projects, supported by various 
foundations. We worked with the British Council, Soros Foundation, 
Pro-Helvetia, the German Embassy and the Ministry of Culture. The center had 
programming almost year round. Not a single penny of the Albanian state 
budget was asked for that, and furthermore, all bills were paid regularly to 
the state."

Not political enough

"It is not that we were political," said Muka, "but maybe because we weren't 
political enough. I was removed with no motive whatsoever."

Muka's dismissal comes after former Minister of Culture Edi Rama was elected 
mayor of Tirana in October. Rama appointed Muka and was highly supportive of 
the arts, especially contemporary art.

As is common practice throughout Eastern Europe, Rama's replacement, 
Esmeralda Uruci, has been willing to replace persons who are a threat to her 
lack of experience.

"That's something we know only too well," said Boyadjiev, "the 'wondrous' 
happenings in practically all post-totalitarian Eastern European countries. 
Some bloody official is jealous of Edi's efforts and accomplishments, or 
somebody else wants to use the Pyramid in Tirana for a more profitable 
purpose than running an alternative, foreign-thinking, troublemaker kind of 
art center which can only underline the ineffectiveness of the official 
cultural infrastructure."

"While, unfortunately, it has not been the practice in the region," added 
Kovats, "it is especially important that strong and open administrations 
back up strong and unique visionaries without fear of one-upmanship. This is 
the only way to build institutions that will have a lasting impact."

Wrong message

Muka's dismissal sends precisely the wrong message to Albanian youth, who 
have few role models or mentors, added Broeckmann: "Muka's efforts for the 
past two years demonstrate that things can be accomplished in the country, 
that it may not be necessary to leave. For the good cultural and political 
development of the country, it will be vital that people like Edi and others 
have good reasons to stay in the country."

Muka and his supporters, who include many prominent members of the 
international art community, immediately protested the action, claiming the 
reasons were political and not performance-related and that contemporary art 
in Albania would be set back by his dismissal.

An e-mail petition with nearly 200 signatures from around the globe has been 
initiated by members of the Syndicate e-mail listserve, a network of 
artists, activists and intellectuals who address contemporary and electronic 
art. The petition was sent to the Albanian Minister of Culture and to the 
Albanian media, but it had no impact on reversing the decision.

A similar petition initiated by Albanian artists and intellectuals is being 
circulated as this goes to press.

Upon his dismissal, Muka was offered a position at the National Gallery 
under Director Gezim Qendro. He has accepted the new post.


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