Constructing a Dream: Socialist Realism in Albanian Art

The Pera Museum, Meşrutiyet Cad 65, Tepebaşı, Beyoğlu, Istanbul

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.

Curated by Artan Shabani, an established contemporary artist, the exhibition investigates the impact of the communist ideology on Albanian visual arts during the second half of the 20th century. The selected artworks reflect the ideology that played an important role in the works’ dogmatic content. The exhibition offers 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 centers around the daily life, working class, portraits of leadership, representations of the regime and a hopeful approach to upcoming generations.