My Birthday Celebration

Synopsis

In a small country in the western part of Balkan there are 800,000 bunkers. They are built during the reign of communist system in Albania. They are the symbols of totalitarian attitude and bring to our mind such concepts as: the War, the Enemy and the Fear. Through the act of organizing my 25th Birthday party inside the bunker, I want to face the oppressive symbol with deliberate awareness for the purpose of inverting its meaning ironically into a symbol of hospitality. Rather than having them as a burden I am trying to give bunkers utilitarian dimension. With this work I want to make visible how the old mentality lingers in many aspects of Albania’s contemporary life. The search process, finding the proper bunker for the party, seems like an archeological process of the present time.

Director Biography

A native of Tirana, Albania, Violana Murataj grew up in a time of major change of political systems. Since very early she was exposed to a wide influx of social philosophical ideas and diverse schools of thought. Since her graduation in 2010 at reputable School of Visual Arts in New York with a Master of Fine Arts degree, where she received the Chairman’s Honor Award for her exceptional artwork, Violana has produced videos and photographs that deal with the complexities and contradictions of life in Albania.