AmazeLab, an artistic journey

by Paola Romagnoli

Tirane by ship, Sarajevo by train, Skopje by bus. These are the destinations of “Going Public “2011. This year the artistic journey conceived by AmazeLab, the cultural non-profit organization based in Milan that has been organizing contemporary art, photography and video exhibitions since 2001, is focusing the attention on eastern Europe.

The  project, called Archipelago Balkans, aims to portray eastern Europe as an eco- friendly tourist destination (to be reached by transport other than airplanes). “It is now time to stop thinking about those areas as conflict zones” says Claudia Zanfi, founder of the organization and heart and soul of this project, “Our objective is to promote travelling as a way to discover the past and the present of a country. Memory and modernity have always been the cornerstones of our activity.”

The watchword is “hospitality”. The artists involved in the project have been working on pieces of art related to this theme. Their creations will be exhibited in Tirane which will have to be reached by boat, Sarajevo, by train, and Skopje, by bus.  The debut will be on March 12 in the Macedonian capital, with an exhibition of paper works on the issue “Open City” and contributions of thirty artists of the likes of Marina Abramovic and Adrian Paci.

At the same time a group called Archibrigade will present a tabloid on the urban reconstruction of the city starting from the projects presented by Kenzo Tange in the 60ies, after the earthquake that had razed Skopje to the ground. June 24 will be Tirane’s turn. That day the first exhibition of the collective Alterazioni Video will open. Their work is a study into the identity of the city and of Albania, a sort of journey made of interviews conducted through social networks with  hundreds of young Albanians  on their stories, wishes, fears and ambitions.

Sarajevo will be the protagonist, next fall, with a book that will take stock of the ecotours and with a symposium that will involve different foundations working with Mediterranean cultures such as art, urbanism and philosophy.

Working without any political support and reinvesting all its profits back into the activity, AmazeLab has also released 30 publications.  

Last year and the year before, through the theme Port City Safari, Going Public connected the port-cities of Bristol, a city which is historically related to slave trafficking, Rotterdam and its huge commercial port, Tangeri, with its illegal migration, Marsiglia, the oldest port in the Mediterranean, Palermo construction sites and sailors’ dreams and Athens with its big touristic streams.