by Edi Hila
A talk about the project “Penthouse” 2014

Edi Hila will present “A talk about the project “Penthouse” 2014”

The talk will revolve around the creative experience and especially around the conceptualization and realization of the latest project, “Penthouse”, exhibited in the Architecture Biennale in Venice, 2014.
The presentation will show the collected materials on the latest constructions in Albania, under the conditions of the latest developments related to democracy, private property and market economy.

Secondly the presentation will revolve around the findings in relation to the new situation of construction and the reasons for this incentive to arrive to a well-defined conclusion concerning the new phenomenon that surfaces, it is overly complex and many-layered like the conditions in the psychological, social, economical and anthropological plane. The changes that the landscape and the environment have gone through, the institutional relations in the context of the administrative bureaucracy, the aesthetical culture, and the spontaneous affinities in the selection of beauty related to the creative tradition of the people. Not forgetting the new relations created after the immigration from the countries in the vicinity.

The presentation will attempt to explain, more or less, that many of the afore-mentioned moments are present in other Balkan countries as well, ensuring the presence of specific features ranging even further than the borders of Albania.

Edi Hila (Eduard Agostini) was born in Shkodër, Albania in 1944. 
In 1967 he graduated from the Higher Institute of Arts in Tirana, in the departament of painting. He has a 10 year experience as a painter and stage designer at the Albanian Radio and Television. In 1974 he was criticized by VI-th Plenium of P.P.SH, a result of which he loses the right of creative work in the field of art. After this he continues to work as artistic editor in the „Horizont“ magazine. From 1991 Edi Hila started to work as a professor of fine arts at the University of Fine Arts in Tirana, in 1993 he was Dean of the faculty of vizual arts at the same University. He retires in 2015. He had an intense creative activity over the years, among which we mention his work with Mitterrand Gallery in Paris and his personal exhibitions : Penthouse (2013), Tradicional landscapes (2009), Suburban Badischer Kunstverain, Karlsruhe (2006) and his exhibiton at the Galeria e Arteve ne Prishtine(2004). He also participated in numerous important collective exhibitions such as: ARCHITECTURE ASSOCIAZIONE, London (2015); “SOME ARTISTS’ ARTISTS” , Marian Goodman Gallery(2014); “POTENTIAL MONUMENTS OF UNREALISED FUTURES”, La Biennale di Venezia, International Architecture Exhibition – Albanian pavilion (2014); “THE DESIRE FOR FREEDOM” Art in Europe from 1945 (curator Monika Flake), Berlin Historical Museum (2012); “TOUCHED”, Biennale of Liverpool (2010); “IN DEN SCHLUHTEN DES BALKAN” (curator, Rene Block) Kunsthale Fridiricianum, Kassel (2003); exhibition“BLOOD&HONEY” , Il futuro dei Balcani (curator Harald Zeman), Vienna ESSL Art Collection (2003), etc.
His works have recently been acquired by the collections of the Musée d'art Moderne Centre Pompidou, FRAC Pays de la Loire, the Fonds Municipal of the Ville de Paris and the private collection of Rene Block.