Constructing a Dream

Socialist Realism in Albanian Art

July 7 - November 22, 2020

The exhibition focused on Albanian socialist realism through painting, poster and drawings, and it offered a selection of artworks produced under the dictatorship that aimed to spread socialism’s main principles among the proletarian.

Curated by Artan Shabani, the exhibition investigated the impact of the communist ideology on Albanian visual arts during the second half of the 20^th century. The selected artworks reflected the ideology that played an important role in the works’ dogmatic content. The exhibition offered an opportunity to become familiar with the culture and identity of Albanian people who had been isolated from the rest of the world for a long time, and centered around the daily life, working class, portraits of leadership, representations of the regime and a hopeful approach to upcoming generations.

3D Virtual Tour

Exhibition Catalogue

Constructing a Dream

The exhibition focuses on Albanian social realism through painting, poster and drawings, and it offers a selection of artworks produced under the dictatorship that aimed to spread socialism’s main principles among the proletarian.

Click for more information about the catalogue.

Video

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The Builders of Happiness
Albanian Cinema

In its new program, Pera Film offers an insight to the era explored in the exhibition Constructing A Dream on view at Pera Museum, inviting the audience to a journey through Albanian cinema.

The Builders of Happiness <br> Albanian Cinema

Pera Learning

Constructing a Dream, Socialist Realism in Albanian Art
Online Workshops

Pera Museum Learning Programs is organizing an online workshop between 13-17 August 2020 for the 7-12 age group in parallel with the exhibition Constructing a Dream, Socialist Realism in Albanian Art.

Constructing a Dream, Socialist Realism in Albanian Art <br> Online Workshops

I Copy Therefore I Am

Suggesting alternative models for new social and economic systems, SUPERFLEX works appear before us as energy systems, beverages, sculptures, copies, hypnosis sessions, infrastructure, paintings, plant nurseries, contracts, or specifically designed public spaces.

Baby King

1638, the year Louis XIV was born –his second name, Dieudonné, alluding to his God-given status– saw the diffusion of a cult of maternity encouraged by the very devout Anne of Austria, in thanks for the miracle by which she had given birth to an heir to the French throne. Simon François de Tours (1606-1671) painted the Queen in the guise of the Virgin Mary, and the young Louis XIV as the infant Jesus, in the allegorical portrait now in the Bishop’s Palace at Sens.

Postcard Nudes

The various states of viewing nudity entered the Ottoman world on postcards before paintings. These postcards appeared in the 1890s, and became widespread in the 1910s, following the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy, traveling from hand to hand, city to city.

Constructing a Dream