Lumturi Blloshmi
From Scratch

MAD Center “Gëzim Qëndro” in collaboration with the Albanian Pavilion at the 59th edition of Venice Biennial

On Thursday March 25, 2022 at 11:00 am, at Polis University will host the curator Adela Demetja, she will present the Albanian pavilion and Lumturi Blloshmi.

Lumturi Blloshmi (1944–2020) will be the first female artist to represent Albania with a solo presentation at the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia and Adela Demetja the first Albanian female curator of the Albanian Pavilion. Demetja became friends with Blloshmi in 2016 and was one of her close collaborators until the end of her life.

Lumturi Blloshmi

Born in 1944 in Tirana, Albania, Blloshmi was one of the most significant Albanian visual artists. Blloshmi’s father, an Officer of King Zog’s Army, was executed by the Communists when Lumturi was only two months old. At five years old she lost her hearing following a bout of meningitis. Blloshmi graduated from the Painting Department at the Academy of Arts in Tirana in 1968. Between 1974 and 1985, she was not allowed to continue her creative practice due to political reasons. Until 2004, Blloshmi worked in several institutions, including the National Gallery of Arts and Institute of Cultural Monuments in Tirana.

Following this, she worked as an independent artist. Several of her works are included in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Tirana. Her works have been shown among others in group and solo exhibitions in institutions like the Chelsea Art Museum in New York, Municipal Art Gallery of Bydgoszcz Poland, Alexandria Biennale for Mediterranean Countries Egypt, Albania National Gallery of Arts, Kosovo National Gallery of Arts. Lumturi passed away on 27 November 2020 as a result of an infection with Covid-19.

Adela Demetja

Adela Demetja, curator of the Albanian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, born in Tirana, lives and works between Frankfurt/Main and Tirana. She holds a master’s degree in “Curatorial and Critical Studies” from Städelschule and Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany. She is the director of Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art, an independent art institution which she established in 2010. As an independent curator she has organized and curated numerous international exhibitions in Europe and the US.

For more follow the official website www.albanianpavilion2022.com