20 Sep 2019

Fani Zguro at Isola Art Center in Milan and other projects

HERE
Fani Zguro
Isola Art Center, Milan
From September 15, 2019

Graffiti is a practice that has spread all over the world. It is an urban action that is often seen as a crime of vandalism, regardless of the originality of its maker. But if we must speak of vandalism, graffiti is perfectly comparable to the phenomenon of advertising posters. Both attempt to communicate through public spaces. Both are there for the sole aim of influencing a consumer (to paraphrase Pier Paolo Pasolini, our contemporary society does not set out to raise good kids, but good consumers). It is simultaneously interesting and grotesque to realize that in both cases we are looking at acts of vandalism. But in the case of graffiti those acts are punishable by law, while advertising posters are instead encouraged by various means and regulations. My proposed project 'Here' is a ´marriage´ of these actions. In my view, the ideal space on which to put graffiti is an advertising poster. The clandestine graffiti artist becomes happy and legal thanks to this courteously supplied and available space.

WRITING JOBS
Fani Zguro
Tirana Art Center
From September 17, 2019

Tirana Art Center is pleased to present the Fani Zguro ́s project 'Writing Jobs'.'Writing Jobs' consists in a series of installations, where extracted phrases from the storybook 'Mr. Dosti' (Fani Zguro 2010) are developed in various techniques and dimensions. 'Writing Job' starts early in 2001, with the realization of a series in slogan forms installed in urban spaces. Later the project was presented at AUP E-flux (a project by Hans Ulrich Obrist Julia Peyton-Jones, Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle) 2014-2016, and in 2017 at Art Thessaloniki and Onufri Prize. A new version of 'Writing Jobs' is commissioned from 13th Cairo Biennale 2019 and Zeta Center for Contemporary Art in Tirana. For Tirana Art Center site-specific installations 'Writing Jobs' is presented with the same structure of 2001.

FROM WHAT IS BEFORE
Fani Zguro
La Nuova Mezzina Arte, Molfetta
From September 20, 2019

Author: Fani Zguro
Title: From What Is Before
Texts: Jean-Roch Bouiller, Astrit Cani, Gaetano Centrone, Francis Coraboeuf, Francesco Deotto, Nico Dockx & Mark Luyten, Dora Garcia, Johan Grimonprez, Iva Kontic & Luukas Veivo, Sonja Lau, Clara Meister, Edi Muka, Bruno Muzzolini, Alberto Pesavento, Steve Piccolo, Anri Sala
Published by: La Nuova Mezzina Arte
Year of Publication: 2019
Print Run: 500 copies

IN A BLIND OF AN EYE
Fani Zguro
Tirana International Film Festival, Tirana
From September 23 until September 29, 2019

'Thursday 4 December 2018 h 16:30 Studio Ugo La Pietra' (2019) is an interview with the veteran italian artist. 'A.C.A.S.' (2011) is a long process of editing (old footage) from 2004 to 2008. 'Fireflies' (2010) is a riot kitchen to o their lamps. 'In A Blind of an Eye' (2008) has a camera xed for a few minutes on a still plane, with no audio nor movement, seeking any single point of reference. 'Broken Threads' (2007) is the manipulation of a '70s Albanian noir movie so as to transform it into its trailer, by collating footage and using as a soundtrack Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' 'The Curse of Millhaven', from album Murder Ballads. 'Street by Street' (2007) is a two channel video, with a day trip in Tirana through the center and a deep nocturnal landscape. 'Pushing an Elephant Upwards' (2007) was shot during a night car trip and for the whole film the camera tries to catch the crossing automobiles, in the end focusing nothing but their endlessly dancing ashlights. 'Selfportrait' (2006) is a short video prompted by re ections on the last phase of Rembrandt's career, in particular the late self-portraits in which the artist – almost in a state of poverty – painted his own image without a mirror, with dark, tormented matter. 'U turn' (2006) is an interpretation of an interview realized in a rural area.

Fani Zguro was born in 1977 in Tirana. Lives and works in Milan. Zguro graduated at the Accademia delle Belle Arti di Brera in Milan (1998-2007). In 2007 he won the International Onufri Prize assigned by the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana; in 2016 the International Mulliqi Prize of the National Gallery of Kosovo in Pristina and the Best Video-Art award at TIFF Tirana. Zguro was part of the AiR program for 2017 at Q21, Museumsquartier, Vienna. His work has been shown at Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest, Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Mediterranée Marseille, Photo Museum Braunschweig, 2nd Tirana Biennale, 3rd Mardin Biennial, 4th Young Artists Biennial of Bucharest, 6th Çanakkale Biennial, 13th Cairo Biennale, Belvedere 21 - Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst Vienna, Ludwig Museum Budapest, Palais Populaire Berlin, New York Public Library and Centre Pompidou Paris.

Special thanks: Steve Piccolo, Mariette Schiltz, Agron Domi, Gaetano Centrone

ISOLA ART CENTER
Address: Via Guglielmo Pepe 10, 20159, Milan
Tel: +39 339 6057111
E-mail: schiltz.mariette@gmail.com
Web: www.isolartcenter.org

TIRANA ART CENTER
Address: Rruga A. Moisiu, P.30, 1001, Tirana
Tel: +35542365171
E-mail: tiranartcenter@gmail.com
Web: www.tiranartcenter.net

LA NUOVA MEZZINA ARTE
Address: Via S. Angelo, 23, 70056 Molfetta
Tel: +39803971129
E-mail: gaetanocentrone@gmail.com
Web: www.fanizguro.net

TIRANA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Address: Njësia Bashkiake Nr.5, Pall. 1 Maj, 1022, Tirana
Tel: +355672088771
E-mail: info@tiranafilmfest.com
Web: www.tiranafilmfest.com