performance – driant zeneli

Unlikely Collisions – 2014

admin — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 15:46:29 +0000

Trailer, Video of the durational performance, 1’44”

A project that starts from a publication of the NASA (1959). A cross-section of an applied space station, a prototype that could host a 50 members’ crew, has been conceived as a laboratory for studying the effects on astronauts of the long space travel. In relation to the Theory of collision by Trautz and Lewis, Driant Zeneli set drones and professional traceurs to move into the exhibition space, walking it and cross it by jumping from the windows from outside to inside. Here, the theory of collision seems to find a possible imagined analogy in collisions between bodies as well as in their failed impact generating new possible reactions. A double channel projection documents the performances.

2014, Durational Performance, video documentation, double projection, 4’20”, color, sound.

Le Pensionnaire absent – 2016

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 13:52:50 +0000

French version – watch on vimeo

Italian version – watch on vimeo

2016, Video, 6’00”, color, sound.”.

2016 – Durational Performance – In Collaboration with: Simon Rouby at Academy of France in Rome.

Inside the ‘Salon des pensioners’ at the French Academy in Rome, there are 51 paintings of the same dimension, made between 1800 and 1900. The paintings are portraits of the previous artist fellows of the French Academy, who used to reside in Villa Medici in Rome. To make a portrait on one self was a way to confirm and archive one’s presence in the prestigious residency program. The performance ‘le pensionnaire absente’ was conceived for the Academy of France in Rome and it concentrates on the 51st portrait, which at the moment is missing from the exhibition.

While entering the room an audio guide describes to the public the story of the artist whose portrait is missing and the motivations behind this absence. The re-invented story is adapted in the 50’s, during the period of the cold war. The voice guide narrates the artist’s life and known ability in portraying Mussolini. When Enver Hoxha, the communist dictator, visited Rome and discovered the abilities of the painter, he invited him immediately to go to Albania with the request of being portrayed by him. The artist accepted the offer and went to Albania to do the commission but during his visits the dictator ordered the complete closure of the country’s borders, so the artist was obliged to stay and live in Albania until his death. Because of this commission the artist was expelled forever from France, and since then his image had been deleted from all French Institutions.

During the day of the opening I invited one of the current artist fellow present in the villa, Simon Rouby, to portray in real time, on a digital screen, the people present in the room. The space transformed itself in a place where history is a process in becoming and of recreation, that gives to the narrative of everyone more or less voice and continuity.

Atelier Albania – 2015

admin — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 17:04:31 +0000

Trailer, Video, 2’22”

Durational Performance – In Collaboration with: Liceu Artistik “Jordan Misja”,and Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana

It was 1981 when on the facade of the Historical Museum the mosaic ‘Shqiperia’ meaning ‘Albania’ is realised by artist Vilson Kilica, Aleksandër Filipi, Agim Nebi, Met Deliu, Josif Droboniku and Anastas Konstandini. The mosaic shows a battle where the participants are man and women from the Iliri era until the Renaissance. On the mosaic there are partisans of the anti-fascist struggle until the National- Socialism. After the fall the communism in 1991, during the first year’s democracy, the five ends star on the flag in the middle of the mosaic, representing the period of the Albanian Social Communism, was removed.

Taking as starting point the mosaic “Albania”, I decided to invite the students from the Liceu Artistik, and the University of Art in Tirana, from visual arts, theatre, dance and film making, to practice, make and experiment with a possible or impossible representative image of contemporary Albania from inside the museum’s walls. I asked them: who are for you the heroes and non-heroes of nowadays?

2015, Video, 8’39”, color, sound.

David without Goliath – 2013

admin — Sat, 11 May 2013 09:45:57 +0000

Performance, 2013, Tirane

In a place where public and performers are divided only by a glass, the visitors have an unusual encounter with the art work: the performers hit the public with a slingshot. The noise of the bounce on the glass stares and catch the visitors’ attention.

The Art Pacemaker – 2012

admin — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:11:50 +0000

watch on vimeo

2013, Video, 8’30”, color, sound.

Performance, Milan (in collaboration with Franco Ariaudo)

The Art Pacemaker is a “race of art”, a collective performance, a running guided tour through galleries, foundations, non-profit spaces and museums of a city.

During a marathon, the “pacemaker” is a runner in charge to run at a steady pace in order to stop in the time indicated by the numbers written on the balloons that they have fasten to their vest. The pacemaker acts as a motivator as well as a leader.

When runners stop at any gallery or museum, the artists-pacemaker focus on a single work, they introduces “pacemaker work” for runners.

The recurring rapid transfers and the several stops at each single art work aim to let runners achieving the feeling they have visited a museum expanded, abolishing the fragmentary nature of the complete route and the individual locations.

Bankrupt artists lesson n°… 2007…

admin — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:31:58 +0000

Trailer, Video, 4’30”

Bankrupt Artists, lesson nr … is an idea born in 2008 when I asked my former professor at the Academy of Fine Arts to give a lecture about failed artists. At the beginning the professor was interested but then he didn’t want to keep on because he was afraid about his and artist’s public image. This first lesson then became a failed project itself. For a period I decided to stop working on this the project, considering this failure as part of the game but in 2009 I decided to propose it again. The lesson was given at the IUAV University of Venice (2009), then at the Academy of Fine Art Albertina of Turin (2012), at Klee Barabino Art School of Genoa (2013) and NABA, Milan (2014), Academy of Fine Art Florence (2015), Centre Pompidou (2016). The goal of the project is to include the theme of failure in the Universities, or Fine Arts Academies teaching program

2009 , Video, 21’21”, color, sound