I am the theater: An account of the paradoxical layers of invisible forces of Western oppression. Viola Ago

1 Monika Kryemadhi, a Several days earlier than the legal permit allowed, at 4:30 land and tormented its people: the 50-year long tyran- Member of Parliament, leader of the Socialist a.m. on May 17, 2020, the National Theater (Albanian: nical totalitarian communist regime of the second half Movement for Integration Party (Albanian: Lëvizja So- Teatri Kombëtar) located in 's capital, , of the 20th century in the case of the Pyramid and the cialiste për Integrim, or LSI), was demolished by police bulldozers under the orders Italian fascist colonization at the start of World War II wife of the current Pres - ident (head of state) was of the Albanian government. This demolition, which for the National Theater. However, both buildings are one of 30 people detained at the demonstrations on was proposed by prime minister Edi Rama in 2018 (and prominent cultural institutions regardless of the con- May 17th, 2020. See: Del- which he attempted as early as the year 2000 during his ception and construction of the built structures. With Demolishing of the National Theater Ti - lanna, Alessio. “Wife of Al- bania's President Detained time as the city Mayor) had been met with fierce resis- that in mind, I can’t help but question the motivations rana May 17, 2020. during Protest.” Euronews, Photo taken by : Nikola Đorđević, Emerg- 18 May 2020, www.eu - tance from some of the theater’s artists, political acti- behind Rama’s unwavering will—and the measures he ing Europe. ronews.com/2020/05/18/ 1 wife-of-albania-s-pres- vists, civilians, and members of the opposition. Manda- took—in this recent case to demolish the National Thea- ident-detained-dur- tes from politicians to demolish historically significant ter. Putting aside the financial incentives exposed in his ing-clashes-over-nation- 2 4 al-theatre-demolition. buildings is not uncommon in post- Albania. blatant corruption schemes (rather normal behavior for 2 The was The Pyramid of Tirana (Albanian: Piramida), a for- a lot of government officials), let’s instead trace the -in primarily caused by the col- lapse of the ponzi pyramid mer museum designed by Albania’s tyrant ruler Enver visible forces that propel the desire for such large-scale schemes in the late 1990s. Hoxha’s daughter and her husband, suffered a similar and arguably unlawful demolitions. 3 3 Nikoli, Fatmira. Alba - story and almost a similar end. The typical narrative— nia Activists Lament Dem- 5 olition of Hoxha Pyramid. or rather propaganda—to support demolition proposals The flagrant demolition of the National Theater mate- 28 May 2018, balkanin - for historically significant buildings is typically based rializes a deteriorating and increasingly polarized rela- sight.com/2012/05/30/alba- nia-activists-lament-dem- on two conditions: said building is deteriorating and its tionship between the public and the state. There are two olition-of-hoxha-pyramid/. presence is reminiscent of a painful past. Though both distinct (and by association paradoxical) instantiations 4 On May 8th, 2020, the Al- statements contain factual truths, the narrative is wo- of oppression that have been infused in the general pu- banian government trans- ferred the land ownership Protests over national theater demoli - efully absurd and even paradoxical. The state-owned blic and the state. Before offering a thought experiment of the theatre from the tion. Associated Press Ministry of Culture to the Pyramid and National Theater are in fact deteriorating for creative discourse, it’s important to note the most pe- Municipality. This transfer because the government has consistently failed to prio- culiar aspect of the situation: for a people that has been signified that public land could now legally be used ritize the maintenance of these structures. It is also true occupied, colonized, invaded, ruled with an iron fist, to develop private and CARTHA II 2020 / 03 commercial projects. See: that each building register times that dilapidated the isolated from the world, stripped of more than half of its

1 Taylor, Alice. “Albanian collective GDP overnight, ethnically cleansed—to name ting for independence in various capacities since 1479. Government Hands Own- ership of National Thea - but a few of its catastrophes over the last 600 years—how In addition, the public was indoctrinated to believe that tre Land to Municipality is it possible that during the demolition of an institu- architectural and urban designs by modern Italian ar- of Tirana - Exit - Explain - ing Albania.” Exit , 10 May tion built during the fascist colonization, the same peo- chitects and planners promised a speedy one-way ticket 2020,exit.al/en/2020/05/09/ albanian-govern- ple placed themselves physically inside the building in a to the “West”. Allow me to rest and expand on the senti- ment-hands-owner- 6 ship-of-national-thea- final attempt to protect it? Are they still under the lure ment for another moment: One of the most ancient tri- tre-land-to-municipali- of its original western promise (a Stockholm Syndrome bes of the Balkan peninsula, who speak one of the ol- ty-of-tirana/. National Theatre of Tirana. https://www. of sorts)? Or do they occupy a different conceptual and dest languages in the world and who have millenia of tiranatimes.com/?p=146016 5 Çela, Lindita, and Gjergj Erebara. “Zbulohet Pro- lived plane than that of their government and the com- historical, cultural, and traditional richness, discoun- jekti i 'Fushës' Me Afro 90 placent part of the community? ted their capacity to contribute to the “West” (or to re- Mijë Metra Katrorë Kulla Dhe Teatër.”Reporter.al , 27 side in the margin for that matter) at the turn of the 20th Jan. 2020, www.reporter.al/ zbulohet-projekti-i-fush- Part 1 - The Paradoxical Axis century because they had fallen so behind in industrial es-me-afro-90-mije-me- power from exhausting all resources towards fending tra-katrore-kul- la-dhe-teater/. Designed in 1938 by Italian Architect Giulio Berté (du- off foreign invasion for almost 500 years. That’s not the 6 According to Romeo ring the Italian fascist era under Benito Mussolini) and worst part. Enter oppression instantiation 2. The most Kodra, Nerital Liçaj was in- side the building during the built by the Pater Costruzioni Edilizia construction painful part of this continuous history is that, analo- demolition. Liçaj and other supporters and activists had company in 1940, the National Theater was one among gously, present-day Prime Minister Edi Rama continues been staying in the theater several notable buildings that were part of a new urban to discount the Albanian people and their seemingly in- on 24hr cycles in order to protect it from demolition. planning strategy designed in the style of Italian Ratio- exhaustible culture by demolishing and completely er- See : “Cynicism and collab- 7 orationists in arts. Destroy- nalism. Italian rationalism was exercised in and asing a performing arts institution that had supported ing monuments and art in imposed on most of the Italian Fascist Party’s colonies the accumulation of intellectual and artistic capital in Albania.” presentation in the framework of “Friday (including Somalia, Libya, and the Dodecanese Islands). the country for the last 80 years. In eerily similar details, 17th: Two Months With- 8 out Teatri Kombëtar”, or- In Albania, it was particularly easy to enforce this new Rama justified the demolition of the National Theater by ganized by Forum dell’Art design-paradigm because it offered an ordered, moder- replacing it with a new theater designed by Danish cor- Contemporanea Italiana , 17/07/2020. nist aesthetic to an ancient and unruly land.9 Enter op- porate firm BIG Architects (including a hidden agenda https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=-AGaM2nD- pression instantiation 1. The intricate history of Italy’s for the construction of three or four private luxury re- fvc&t=7358s occupation of Albania and the handover of all building sidential towers on the same property)11 in what he said 7 Mandates for a new ur - projects exclusively to Italian construction companies was going to be “[A]nother cultural destination of Eu- ban plan had been long- 12 in-the-making and had is deep and lengthy (to do it justice, you would have to ropean proportions.” Make no mistake that Rama’s started after World War I with mutual relations be- start with the Roman colonization of Illyria 230 BCE– “European” refers to a Europe that aligns with a neo- tween Musolini and the Al- 169 CE10). Again leaving power and financial gains aside, liberal image of the West exclusively. Under the same banian king at the time, King Zog. See: Peter, Tase. there are two primary circumstances that permitted the narrative, other westerns architects whose projects have “Italy and Albania: The Po- litical and Economic Alli- rise of Italian Rationalism in Albania that are important been endorsed and commissioned by Rama’s govern- ance and the Italian Inva- to the question of oppression, and more particularly, the ment include: Italian based Archea Associati, Belgium New Tirana National Theater, BIG. sion of 1939.” Academicus International Scientific more dangerous and detrimental ones, such as the invi- based 51N4E, Netherlands based MVRDV, and Journal , vol. 6, 2012, pp. 62–70., doi:10.7336/ sible and unforeseeable ones—deeply rooted in the psy- based Coop Himmelblau. Most of the proposals/built academicus.2012.06.06. che and body. For one, this occupation was successful, works from these commissions offer at best fleeting no- sudden, and bloodless because the strength of the Alba- tions of contemporaneity with their corporate aesthetics nian Resistance Forces was waning—they had been figh- and are purely capital-driven, neo-liberal nightmares. CARTHA II 2020 / 03

2 8 Fuller, Mia. “Building Rama’s fascination with “European proportions” dis- theater) and speeches from the various continuous de- Power: Italy's Colonial Ar- chitecture and Urbanism, plays a complex set of desires (shared by many non-wes- monstrations by artists and activists describe a unique 1923-1940.” Cultural An- tern populations), including the desire to belong to the relationship to the physical building, its space, and thropology , vol. 3, no. 4, 1988, pp. 455–487. Occident regardless of the price-tag 13 and to eventually its associated cultural collective. Sentiments such as

9 The new Urban Plan di - be accessioned to the European Union. To reiterate, in- these—being the theater, feeling that the theater is part vided the city into old and visible forms of oppression are powerful and deeply in- of a person’s body, and associating the birth of many new. grained, and they create these catastrophic conditions artistic and creative institutions with the physical pre- 10 Durham, M. Edith, and Robert Elsie. Twenty Years where one attempts to escape a previous occurrence of sence of the building16—are extremely captivating from of Balkan Tangle . Centre for Albanian Studies, 2015. coercion by exactly using the same force (i.e. using the an architecture perspective.

11 Let alone the fact that he same oppression narratives of the past that the present flagrantly transferred land is trying to escape). Contemporary thinkers such as architecture critic Syl- ownership rights to the mu- nicipality without follow- via Lavin and political theorist Jane Bennett have the- ing constitutional law. The backdoor deal with Fusha Part 2 - Insights for Creative Discourse orized extensively on culture, surrounding, and being/ SHPK (speculated such that becoming in the world through affective experiences Fusha agrees to build the new Theater at no cost if “‘If Europe only understood,’ he says (and it should be and phenomena. In her Architecture in Extremis ar- they allowed them to build luxury towers on the theat- remarked that he rarely, if ever, classes himself as Euro- ticle, Lavin argues for a rejection of standardized con- er’s) was not unlike King pean)— ” temporary architectural proposals in favour of “tempo- Zog’s with Musolini’s gov- ernment and trade business , 1905, reporting from her trip to the Bal- ral flows” and “architectural ambiances.”17 If Lavin saw (and banks). See: Kodra, Ro- 14 meo. “Architectural Monu- kans on behalf of the Macedonian Relief Committee. BIG’s proposal for the new National Theater—shaped mentalism in Transitional like a bowtie, placed on a flat ground, oriented in align- 12 Block, India. “Protests in Reducing the existence and importance of the National ment with its property lines, represented in typical con- Tirana Ahead of BIG Project as Albanian National Thea- Theater to one characteristic—the fascist ideologies of temporary materials, and rendered with predetermi- tre Demolished.” Dezeen , 21 May 2020, www.dezeen. the time period it was built in—is in and of itself op- ned behavior of programmed space—she surely would com/2020/05/19/protests-ti- pressive, and it can even be aligned with racist and xe- be dismayed by it. I would argue that her call to allow rana-ahead-big-albani- an-national-theatre-demol- nophobic tactics of western right-wing extremists. It objects and participation to occupy interior space or ar- ished-news/. is indisputable that this institution carried an inesti- chitecture at large can generate new productive ideas. 13 It would take another es- say to describe the geo-po- mable amount of cultural cache for its people. Its in- She suggests the method of “churning” for architectu- litical intricacies of Alba- flammatory demolition caused demonstrations to erupt ral alternatives. To be specific, Lavin argues that taking nia as the tug-of-war land between two giants: the instantly at the realization that—among other things— existing things18 from the past and putting them on dis- Orthodox/Catholics to its northwest (the Occident) history repeated itself in top-down fascist-like manners play again out of turn—a non-ordered, cyclical return and the Islamic Turks to its southwest (the Orient, the- reminiscent of those from 80 years ago. For the people, of things—can be a form of active resistance against the Near East). this is not simply a fight for the theater, but also a fight standardized architectural projects that emerge out of a 14 Durham, M. E. The Bur- for democracy itself.15 Yet, Rama’s and city mayor Erion lineage of embedded and inherited predispositions (mo- den of the . Forgot- ten Books, 2017. Veliaj’s concern for the people was nonexistent partly dern, post-modern, neo-modern, etc.). 15 A lot of the demonstra- due to their unwavering conviction that they are forging tion chantings were “Liri, Demokraci” which trans- the path towards a progressive future; there is a strange From another point of view but in alignment with lates to “Freedom, Democ- we-know-best tone emanating from their government. Lavin’s thinking, Bennett, in her recent book Influx and racy”. This chant has a long and weighted history in the Efflux: Writing Up with Walt Whitman offers an alter- country’s political transi- Slogans such as “Unë jam teatri” (translated: I am the native understanding of the world through the phe- CARTHA II 2020 / 03 tional periods.

3 16 Taylor, Alice. “Albanian nomena of atmosphere. She argues that all material a rather deteriorated state. But in the wake of such de- Government Hands Own- ership of National Theatre things make up an atmosphere filled with forces and struction, negating the binary narrative of old vs. new, Land to Municipality of Ti- actants whose primary mode of communication is not or east vs. west might offer a way out of this oppression. rana - Exit -Explaining Alba- nia.” Exit , 10 May 2020, just the human language, but rather lyrical and haptic, Following Lavin’s and Bennett’s calls for resistance and exit.al/en/2020/05/09/ 19 albanian-govern- and by extension, indeterminate and non-ordered. In non-human centric lenses, a collapse might occur: a col- ment-hands-owner- ship-of-national-thea- Bennett’s proposal, by flattening the material structure lapse that encompasses binaries by stripping them from tre-land-to-municipali- of humans, animals, plants, and minerals, meaning and their previous value systems—the East and the West, ty-of-tirana/. value are then not only human, but rather they reside in the old historical theater and new contemporary inter- 17 Lavin, Sylvia. “Archi - tecture In Extremis.” Log a shared material continuum. Such is also the sentiment ventions, the old rough algae-binding cement and the Debris from the original National theater , no. 22, 2011, pp. 60. from the artists and activists that have defended their new shiny synthetic siding, the dirty and the clean— JSTOR, www.jstor.org/sta- ble/41765708. Accessed theater with their bodies. I am the theater. Even after the into a flattened continuum that creates an atmosphere of Aug. 2019. demolition, when the built structure could no longer be events and indeterminate phenomena. I am the theater. 18 Thing is used here in saved, the theater was not lost; it continued to live with an anthropological sense such that items, objects, the people who felt its presence. A piece of debris carries ideas, resist their defini- tive boundaries. This way, a its essence, such as the one requested by performance Viola Ago (b. Lushnjë, Albania) is an architectural designer, educa - thing can be material or im- artist/actor Neritan Liçaj after the demonstration.20 tor, and practitioner. She directs MIRACLES Architecture and is the material, active or passive, current Wortham Fellow at the Rice University School of Architec - and can be used to describe ture. Recently, Viola was awarded the Yessios Visiting Professorship essence that can flow from one form into another. With these parallels in mind, it seems that the theater, at the Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture and the people, and history suggest a context that was pri- the Muschenheim Fellowship at the University of Michigan Taub - 19 Bennett, Jane. Influx man College of Architecture. Viola earned her M.Arch degree from and Efflux: Writing Up with med for a productive, invigorating, and refreshing yet- SCI-Arc, and a B.ArchSc from Ryerson University. Her written work Walt Whitman . Duke Uni- versity Press, 2020, ch 2, 8. to-be-known architectural alternative: one that did not has been published by Routledge and Park Books, as well as in Log, AD Magazine, Offramp, Acadia Conference Proceedings, JAE, TxA, 20 Neritan Liçaj requested rely on mimicking the West and, in doing so, repeating Architect’s Newspaper, and Archinect. a piece of rock from the theater after the demoli- atrocious cycles of human and civil injustices. This was a tion. He announced pub- perfect case where with some recognition of self-worth, licly that he will attempt to place in the foundations of conversations with practitioners, critics and theorists, the new theater if things go according to his plans. and the involvement of the people that occupy the buil- Otherwise, he will request ding with such “lyrical force,”21 a new model could have in his will to be buried with the rock in his (translated emerged. Sadly, history found a way, yet again, to coldly from alb.) “ forever-after place of living when my betray our present. time comes ”. 21 Bennett, Jane. Influx Parting Thoughts: and Efflux: Writing Up with Walt Whitman . Duke Uni- versity Press, 2020, pp 74- 77. The erasure of the National Theater is emblematic of the desire for Rama’s government to suppress the intel- lectual and artistic wealth of the people of Albania. In the pursuit of liberation from such modes of coercion, the Albanian people reacted strongly to the demolition proposal but to no avail. As previously mentioned, the maintenance neglect had admittedly left the theater in CARTHA II 2020 / 03

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