Il titolo del progetto è "Zero Space”, inteso come il piano terra di Tirana che sarà esposto in un'installazione multi-livello e multi-sensoriale composta da elementi che mirano a guidare il visitatore in un viaggio nello spazio libero e nell’essenza della città. Il pubblico è quindi coinvolto tramite i suoni, le sfumature e la mancanza di percezione dei confini, ma allo stesso tempo è libero di modificare la configurazione visiva del padiglione.

“HAPËSIRA ZERO SPACE” is the project selected to represent for the 5th time Albania at the International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
The Albanian Pavilion is curated by Elton Koritari, curator, co-founder of EJAlbum. The authors of the project are Dorian Tytymçe and Forian Pollo, architects and co-founder of Varka Arkitekturë, Jurtin Hajro, architect, founder of commonsense.studio and Enri Leka, designer, founder of Fablab Tirana.

Freespace is the theme given to the Biennale Architettura 2018 by its curators Yvone Farrell and Shelley McNamara. Keeping with the theme, Freespace is interpreted as the liberation of the space on ground floor of Tirana, creating a city where everyone serves something to the someone. Throughout being served in a cafeteria or at a shoemaker, a barber shop, a tailor or even at a butcher, this level, simply, slowly, in its own pace but at the same time in a chaos which with its spontaneous evolution, differently from the classic planning of the territory, has created the city where the public space is similar to a physical social media, with its feet on the ground. The active participation and the sense of community takes place in the forming of a lifestyle based on opportunities given in the zero level of the city. In Tirana nowadays, life happens in “places” in which it is possible to find almost every private or public service and to live every possible experience within the city’s perimeter with an uncommon uniformity spread throughout its whole extent.

The title of the project, “Zero Space”, is related to the ground floor of Tirana, considered to convey a social role, resizing the city in a human scale. Tirana's Zero Space is exposed in a multilayer installation through a sensorial experience created by composing elements that aim to include senses and guide the visitor in a journey perceiving the free space and an essence of the city. The public is therefore involved in sounds, shades, lack of perception of the borders, but at the same time free to modify the visual configuration of the pavilion. Intentionally or not, he becomes a spectator but also the protagonist of creating a spatial form, growing into a tourist, or even more a citizen of Tirana. A diverse ‘eyes on the street’, referring to J. Jacobs, envision an entirety of performances of the everyday scenes are exhibited as urban pixels floating each individually, creating a unique collective recital of the city. This installation positively interprets a phenomenon that is born as a social one but is turned into an energy that melds our whole lifestyle through the architecture of the city, in a significant intersection of humanity with space.

Tirana has no resemblance to a “non-place” or “Utopia” (claimed by Thomas Moore as the definition of an imaginary place, a metaphysical one, that does not exist in reality), but in our interpretation, we intentionally shift it into another ancient Greek word “Eutopia” – a good place, a place that makes you feel good, makes you visit it, experience it. It is by this phenomenal diptych that we introduce our Eutopian Tirana.

The Albanian Pavilion is commissioned by Mirela Kumbaro, The Minister of Culture of Republic of Albania. Many thanks go to Tirana Municipality and the Mayor of Tirana Mr. Erion Veliaj, partner and sponsor of the project and of course to all the collaborators, contributors, artists, students and volunteers.


PAVILION OF ALBANIA
16TH INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION
LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

Commissioner: Mirela Kumbaro, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Albania
Partner/Sponsor: Tirana Municipality and the Mayor of Tirana Mr. Erion Veliaj
Curator: Elton Koritari
Exhibitors: Dorian Tytymçe and Forian Pollo, Varka Arkitekturë; Jurtin Hajro, commonsense.studio; Enri Leka, Fablab Tirana.


PROGRAMME
The exhibition will be open for public from Saturday, May 26 until Sunday, November 25, 2018 while two days of vernissage are to be hold on May 24 and 25, 2018. The open ceremony will take place on May 25th at 2 pm.
The curatorial team of the project aspires to create a discussion about the concept and the phenomenon of Tirana’s Zero Space, creating an activity plan aims to make an impact through exhibitions, meetings, open lectures, publications, performances etc., transforming the installation into an active pavilion during the six months of the exhibition. A Meeting on Architecture closes the activities of the pavilion on November, 23th.