Media and electronic arts in Albania
Short text by Eduard Muka on media and electronic arts in Albania, related to the V2_East discussion on media art in Eastern Europe.
Media arts in Albania is as new as all the processes freedom has produced all over Eastern Europe. Differing from the West, as all the cultures of Eastern ex-communist countries does, Albania has a completely specific face. The Media and Electronic Art is an unknown territory that is just being explored by Albanian artists. The facilities that the media offer are not totally available in Albania, but the existence of cultural potentials everywhere in the Albanian territory are the right possibility to start making our own experience, different from the Western tradition but not very common even for the East one. Undoubtedly, the conceptual context is often present conditioned by the dictatorial legacy inherited in the media channels. This makes it look different from Western tradition that deals a lot with technology, but also with the Eastern one that technologically has similarities with the West, while contextually is somehow similar to our situation. In a culture where private property didn¥t exist, where the idea of the commodity and its production isn¥t still conceived, where there is only 0.5% of middle class, and where alternative art is still considered an "ism", the introduction of the newest achivements in the field of arts is very important. Especially regarding the field of media art, it is very important not only to internationalize that human activity that is called Art, but also to accomplish a cultural transaction definitely needed for the collapse of the old totalitarian mentality and to prepare the way for the new and the unexplored territories.
Playing with the written and moving image as the highest degree of manipulation humanity has invented, gives artists the chance to raise social and individual imperatives in art that, if organised in the right way, can become real pieces of art.
