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

From Cypresses to Turkish Landscapes

Among the most interesting themes in the oeuvre of Prassinos are cypresses, trees, and Turkish landscapes. The cypress woods in Üsküdar he saw every time he stepped out on the terrace of their house in İstanbul or the trees in Petits Champs must have been strong images of childhood for Prassinos.

Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel

In 1998 Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu collaborated on an obvious remake of Marcel Duchamp’s Roue de Bicyclette, his first “readymade” object. Duchamp combined a bicycle wheel, a fork and a stool to create a machine which served no purpose, subverting accepted norms of art.

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests

Between 1963 and 1966 Andy Warhol worked at making film portraits of all sorts of characters linked to New York art circles. Famous people and anonymous people were filmed by Andy Warhol’s 16 mm camera, for almost four minutes, without any instructions other than ‘to get in front of the camera’.

Constructing a Dream