T h e S y m b o l i c E f f i c i e n c y of the Frame T.I.C.A.B. Tirana International Contemporary Art Biennial Hotel Dajti, 18 September - 22 October 2009 E p i s o d e 1 The Symbolic Efficiency of the Frame Edi Muka & Joa Ljungberg Co-directors of T.I.C.A.B. 2009 | curators of Episode 1 We take this notion as a starting point to enter a How are we then to read our overall current condition discussion about the complex and manifold nature of and recent past? Are we to believe the jolly promise of a “the real” and its many “appearances”, and the various forthcoming “consensual world”, depicted by many as the ways how we perceive reality and relate to our history. unavoidable future of a post-political world, or should we Independently from which angle we look or what reluctantly try to “re-frame” the picture put in front of methodology we employ – be it scientific, aesthetic, or us? How far can cognitive sciences take us in such philosophical — what interest us are the inherent gaps processes as knowing of the self, identity formation and that manifest themselves in this constantly shifting other ontological problems? What possible “frames” can process of perception. A “frame” or its notion is we use to enable a more multilayered reading of reality? something we use in order to define, discern or cut off in order to highlight. In other words, a frame or the process As a physical departure point informing our endeavor we of enframing is our way to relate to the ungraspable shall take the empty, vandalized building of the former essence of the reality that surrounds us. The frame thus Hotel DAJTI. Located in the Tirana city centre the once is not merely a physical construction, but most of all a grandiose Hotel DAJTI lies in decay waiting for its mental one, a way that helps (or hinders) our perception eventual future transformation. A historical and of the world and the society. architectural landmark, a silent but vivid witness of ideologies and power structures that built it and used it When talking about the reality and its appearance in his during the years, Hotel DAJTI with its ravaged walls and book “The Parallax View”, Slavoj ZIZEK mentions the floors presents a perfect “symbolic frame”. Inviting the example of the theatre-like structure built in the South artists to interact with it, we aim at interrupting the linear Korean border, where a large screen-like window opens flow of time to which DAJTI has succumbed. This out onto the North Korean part, and he asks: “Is this not interaction we hope, will create the necessary gaps a pure case of the symbolic efficiency of the frame as through which we’ll be able to step out of a one such? A barren zone is given a fantasmatic status, dimensional reading of history, opening up to critique elevated into a spectacle, solely by being enframed. and analysis of our historical past and seemingly non- Nothing substantially changes here – it is merely that, ideological present, encouraging imagination and aiming viewed through the frame, reality turns into its own for a deeper understanding of our contemporary appearance.” He continues further down by saying that: condition. “…it is not enough to display the mechanism behind the frame, the stage effect within the frame acquires an autonomy of its own.” Paradise hotel Oskar Mörnerud In 1926, my grandmother takes a photo of a group of people The dream of paradise is probably enhanced by the exotic The capacity and incapacity of words to reveal what meets around the altar of Nora Missionary Church in mid-Sweden. palms in the group photo, but also by my grandparents’ love my eyes would appear to be both necessary and inevitable. Above the picture in the album it says: “From the Great story. The writing above the photo and grandmother’s desire If it is as I assume, that words are like bites from the apple Revival, 1926”. This is a historic relic from the emergence of to get grandfather to “join” reminds me of the myth of Adam (or whatever fruit it was), this would mean that all my the Free Church Movement in Sweden at the time. A and Eve in Paradise. communication is like a perpetual biting and swallowing of Christian popular movement that went hand in hand with the the apple. This, in turn, would involve perpetually putting my labour movement and teetotalism, and was involved in As we know, Adam and Eve ate the apple from the tree of vision at risk. formulating the idea of a new, more modern way of life, knowledge – and so did grandfather and grandmother. beyond the muddy fields and unprofitable small farmsteads “Knowledge for better or for worse” became part of their A risk-taking that, if it resembles Adam’s and Eve’s biting of in Sweden. bodies and identities via the digestive system, and suddenly the apple, would involve oscillating in complete uncertainty remarkable phenomena became noticeable, such as between the possibility of “death” or “becoming as Gods” My grandmother’s album contains several similar group embarrassing hairiness and the potential for owning things. and obtaining total knowledge. photos of people standing in and in front of mission halls Assimilating though the eating of “knowledge for better or and chapels. Often, they are in their Sunday best, and for worse” affected their entire world view and made It may seem a bit drastic that every uttered word should symmetrically flanked by some sort of potted palm trees. everything appear in a different light. Meanwhile, according involve an oscillation between these two extreme positions In the beginning of the album, grandmother is the only to the myth, a new distance and detachment was but, as it stands, it further clarifies what also emerges after participating photographer, and when the man who is later established to the world and to God. ingesting knowledge, namely that my vision is not only to be my grandfather appears in a group photo, he is influenced by my reason and what I can think, but also by marked with an X on his chest, and above the picture it says I have a feeling that words, the instrument we use to convey my body. in big letters: “THAGE MED” (THAGE JOINED). Obviously, our knowledge, contain the same mystical contradiction this moment was important to grandmother that THAGE and, as such, are a kind of bites from the apple. Just as a Consequently, in my attempts to see and understand, when chose to join. Perhaps this was even a condition for their word can say exactly what is intended, it can also be totally I put my outlook on the world at peril, it is not enough to love, that Thage “joined” the movement and shared her inept. By defining and pinpointing an object with one word, imperil it on the reason-level; I must also step out of myself belief in JESUS and the afterlife. it becomes manageable to me, but it can also limit my and my body in order to see from another angle. ability to see the object and make it inaccessible. In other words, I must seek the “bite”, the dividing line Football teams, group tours and MPs all line up in When grandmother clicks the camera and the harsh flash between what I see and my formulations, and try to approximately the same way for photos. They share the illuminates the chapel, it is as though the mechanism of the pronounce the words from there. same aspirations or ideas – to win the match, or a faith in myth is repeated – like a bite from the apple. Something, a democracy. My grandparents shared a faith in Jesus and the moment, is captured but is, at the same time, elusive. The life eternal, but also a dream of another, more modern, moment she wishes to capture is grandfather’s urban life, working for one of Alfred NOBEL’s nearby arms manifestation of a comprehensive outlook on the world. An factories – a mixture of hopes aroused by the revivalist outlook that makes the world decipherable, but can also movement, and the labour movements’ ideas on an ideal create a distance and narrow my field of vision. and impending life in paradise. 4 The Pollination Franz of the Flower Ackerman “The Albanian Plateau” Mimoza Ahmeti 2009 wall painting It was a small child like the light 6 x 6.20 meters with eyes like the night all like a star. “Mental Map – The New Stayed surprised Tunnel” above my cliffs and shouted: Madam, you are falling off! 2009 Mixed media on paper, 13 x 19cm I know, my look whispered and with my arms I grabbed “Mental Map - The Flower his milky kiss just as his sex. that was all he could offer to save me. Bowl” 2009 All day he was pollinating flowers Mixed media on paper and in the evening, when stars pinched him, 13 x 19cm he would run screaming: Madam! You are dieing, You are falling! Courtesy the artist And again a milky kiss. We were both exhausted: Franz ACKERMANN’s vibrant paintings and Promised snake kisses installations centre on themes of travel, and wolf hugs to each other tourism, globalisation and urbanism. Since we couldn’t do. the early 90s, ACKERMANN has evolved a set of Situationist-inspired visual practices They were kisses with whining snakes investigating the "psychogeographical" that a day later would become healing.