Housing Albanian Culture is the title of the travelling exhibition which opened its doors at the first location this October, symbolically in the former Great Palace of Culture, today's seat of the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Tirana, Albania.
Introduced in the 1950s, houses of culture represent the architectural high-end of postwar modernism in Albania. More importantly, they constitute the key infrastructure of the public domain, forming the core of public life in every town and village, thus creating a national cultural network. Through field trips across the country, photo documentation, archival research of technical drawings and cinematographic footage, a database of over 100 cultural objects is presented in the exhibition, with a main focus on 50 houses of culture, their architecture remodeled and their new stories retold. The exhibition interprets the spread of the typology of cultural houses, its evolution, and its social impact and influence in contemporary times. Brought back to life as enlightened sparkles, the houses of culture reopened the discussion in the exhibition hall of the former Grand Palace of Culture in the center of Tirana to start their journey.
The initiative is a developing effort to promote and create dialogue with the public by experimenting with different artistic forms as part of the ongoing research on the phenomenon of houses of culture in Albania, conducted by Ing. arch. Tea Mersuli in the Faculty of Architecture and Design STU, under the supervision of prof. dr. Ing. arch. Henrieta Moravčíkova.
The event was supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport of Albania and the Faculty of Architecture and Design Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.
