ZETA Contemporary Art Center

ZETA Contemporary Art Center ZETA Contemporary Art Center is a non-profit exhibition space founded in 2007, in Tirana

12/06/2026

ZETA Center for Contemporary Art is proud to share that Armando Lulaj has been selected as a finalist for the Balkan Contemporary Art Prize 2026.

Ms. Valentina Koca, founder and director of ZETA, had the honor of being invited by the Singer-Zahariev Foundation to serve as one of the nominators for this year’s prize.

We are deeply grateful to our Bulgarian colleagues and partners for their vision, generosity, and unwavering commitment to fostering artistic excellence and cultural dialogue across the Balkans.

18/05/2026

ZETA Contemporary Art Center has the pleasure to invite you to the solo exhibition Bold Lines, Fragile Lines by Olia Fedorova.

🥂 May 27, 19:00
🗓 May 27 – June 31
📍 ZETA Contemporary Art Center

In this project, the artist continues working with the landscapes of her homeland - Ukraine - through maps. Maps reduce landscapes to clusters of lines, they do not reflect all those tragic changes and ruination they went through because of the Russian full scale invasion in reality. They don’t show anyhow nature's resilience and will to survive in the middle of catastrophe either. But at the same time they serve as an instrument of documentation of the landscapes, preserving them in the state they were once depicted.
The exhibition brings together two series of artworks.

🧵 Maps of the Defence Lines consists of embroidered representations of Ukrainian rivers — rivers that have suffered deeply from the war, yet at the same time have served, and continue to serve, as powerful natural defence lines, delaying or preventing the further advance of Russian troops.

⚫ Wound in the shape of the northeastern border of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region is a black curtain embroidered with a line tracing the mentioned borderline between Ukraine and Russia. On February 24, 2022, Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border in countless locations, one of them being this exact border, just 40 km from Kharkiv — the artist's hometown. To this day, the border remains a site of ongoing battles and a constant source of threat.

The exhibition is realized as part of Olia Fedorova’s residency in Tirana within the framework of the Foreign Atelier Stipend Program by Land Steiermark (County of Styria, Austria).

11/04/2026

📢 Zeta- Qendra për Artin Bashkëkohor ka kënaqësinë të shpallë të hapur Thirrjen për Çmimin ARDHJE 2026 dhe fton artistë të rinj, nën moshën 35 vjeç, të dërgojnë aplikimet e tyre.

🏛️ Qendra ZETA organizon këtë çmim, në bashkëpunim me Residency Unlimited (RU), institucioni i cili pret artistin fitues si rezident dy-mujor në New York, mbështetur nga fondacioni 'The Trust for Mutual Understanding', NY.

🎯 Çmimi ARDHJE organizohet si një konkurs i përvitshëm, që ka për qëllim të nxisë krijimtarinë, ekspozimin dhe promovimin e artit bashkëkohor në Shqipëri dhe ndërkombëtarisht. ARDHJE është pjesë e rrjetit ‘Young Visual Artist Award’ që nga viti 2007.

🧩 Ashtu si dhe çmimet simotra në Europën Lindore dhe Juglindore, ARDHJE është një konkurs i hapur, që fton artistët të marrin pjesë në një proçes transparent, që ofron jo vetëm mundësi për krijimin dhe prezantimin e veprave të reja në një ekspozitë të përbashkët, por edhe mbështetje në zhvillimin e tyre artistik dhe profesional.

👥 Një juri e përbërë nga profesionistë të fushës, vendas dhe ndërkombëtar, do të përzgjedhë katër artistët finalistë. Zgjedhja e artistit fitues bëhet nëpërmjet një shqyrtimi të veprave të propozuara, CV’s, Portfolio’s të secilit kandidat dhe cilësisë së intervistës me anëtarët e jurisë ndërkombëtare.

📅 Afati përfundimtar për të dërguar aplikimin është 10 qershor 2026.

📢 Lista e 4 artistëve të përzgjedhur si finalistë do të publikohet brenda datës 20 qershor 2026.

💰 Artistëve finalist do t’u akordohet një shumë prej 1200 $ për realizimin e veprës pjesëmarrëse në ekspozitë.

🖼️ Hapja e ekspozitës me artistët finalistë dhe shpallja e fituesit do të mbahet në muajin tetor 2026.

📌 Kriteret e aplikimit:

🎨 Thirrja është e hapur për artistë që janë aktivë në skenën e artit bashkëkohor në Shqipëri dhe atë ndërkombëtare prej së paku 3 vjet.

🌍 Artistët shqiptarë që jetojnë jashtë Shqipërisë, duhet të jenë aktiv në skenën artistike në vend, duke ekspozuar në 3 vitet e fundit.

⚠️ Artistë që nuk janë shtetas të Shqipërisë mund të marrin pjesë vetëm nëse kanë një kontribut të posaçëm në zhvillimin e skenës së artit në vend, si dhe karriera e tyre artistike është ngushtësisht e lidhur me Shqipërinë.

🖌️ Mund të aplikojnë artistë të cilët punojnë në të gjitha gjinitë e artit pamor, që përfshin pikturë, skulpturë, grafikë, vizatim, instalacion, fotografi, video, mediumet e reja dhe performancë.

⛔ Nuk do të pranohen artistë që punojnë kryesisht në artet e aplikuara, dizajn, teatër, vallëzim dhe film artistik.

🎓 Aplikanti/ja duhet të ketë mbaruar studimet universitare gjatë fazës së aplikimit dhe rezidencës.

👤 Artistët duhet të aplikojnë drejtpërdrejtë si individ dhe jo si grupe artistike, pasi rezidenca në NY mund të mikpresë vetëm një artist.

🌐 Aplikanti/ja duhet të zotërojë anglishten e folur dhe të shkruar.

📩 Proçedura e aplikimit:

Aplikimi për Çmimin ARDHJE 2026 bëhet duke dërguar dokumentacionin e kërkuar në adresën:
📧 [email protected]

📂 Aplikimi duhet të përmbajë:
1️⃣ Emër, mbiemër, data e lindjes, adresë, nr. telefoni, e-mail.
2️⃣ Curriculum Vitae (shqip dhe anglisht) PDF.
3️⃣ Portfolio prej jo më shumë se 10 imazhe apo video still të shoqëruara me informacionin përkatës (titulli, viti, teknika, dimensionet dhe ku është shfaqur vepra).
4️⃣ Projekt-ide apo vepra të propozuara për pjesëmarrje në ekspozitën e finalistëve (projekti mund të jetë i ri ose i realizuar gjatë dy viteve të fundit).
5️⃣ Një tekst në shqip dhe anglisht, prej jo më shumë se 350 fjalë, mbi karakterin e punës dhe praktikës suaj artistike.

📝 Emërtoni dokumentët e ngarkuar me emrin tuaj, si për shembull: Emër_Mbiemër_Titull_Medium_Viti

🎥 Videot pranohen vetëm si link i një platforme online (Vimeo/YouTube) të shoqëruar me password-in përkatës, nëse nuk janë publike.

📞 Për më shumë, kontaktoni:
📧 [email protected]

🤝 Çmimi ARDHJE 2026 është mbështetur nga:
Trust for Mutual Understanding
Residency Unlimited
Young Visual Artists Awards

08/04/2026

Olia Fedorova comes to Tirana as part of a two-month-long studio scholarship by the province of Styria, Austria, organised by ZETA Contemporary Art Center and supported by Land Steiermark - A9 Culture, Europe, Außenbeziehungen.

Born in 1994 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. A multidisciplinary conceptual artist who mostly works with text- and textile-based practices, but also with performance, photography, and video. In 2016, she graduated from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Fine Arts and began her career. After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she also began to work as an art activist and publicist. Since summer 2022, Olia has lived and continues her practice in Graz, Austria. Since 2024, she has been studying in an MA program in the «Textile, art, design» department of the Art University Linz, Austria.

Olia’s artistic focus lies in the exploration of language and natural landscape as a space of meaning (trans)formation. Recently, she has been exploring how natural environments are transformed, physically and meaningfully, by wars and human-made disasters. In such work, she makes words, symbols, and pictograms dissolve in the landscape, for example, using semi-transparent or disappearing materials, thus speaking on the topics of impermanence, instability, and mortality.

Olia Fedorova had solo exhibitions in Ukraine, Poland, Austria, and Italy. Participated in art residencies, group exhibitions, and projects in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Spain, Norway, Argentina, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of South Africa, the USA, and many more. Her works are included in the collections of the Ukrainian Museum of Contemporary Art (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Jeonbuk Province Art Museum (Republic of Korea), as well as in the private collections in Ukraine, Germany, and Norway.

26/02/2026

🎬 ZETA Contemporary Art Center is thrilled to invite you to the Albanian premiere of “Sleeping with a Tiger” — a film that is far more than a biographical portrait of Austrian painter Maria Lassnig; it is a cinematic homage.

🗓 06.03.2026
⏰ 18:00
📍 ZETA Contemporary Art Center

In this unique cinematic biography by Anja Salomonowitz, Birgit Minichmayr embodies Maria Lassnig at every age — 6, 19, 64, and 94 — moving through time as an eternally identical figure. The film translates the physical act of painting — “seeing and feeling the world from the inside out” — into a cinematic language, creating an intimate portrait of this exceptional artist.

This film is therefore no longer really a biopic. It is an evocative, picturesque vision of how memories and feelings are not anchored in time, but are able to evoke images at any time.

✨ This premiere is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Austrian Embassy in Tirana.

18/02/2026

DUETS
Anne Katrine Senstad & Fani Zguro

📍 ZETA Center for Contemporary Art, Tirana
🗓 February 25 – March 8, 2026
🥂 Vernissage: February 25, 18:00—20:00

“Duets” is a project by Fani Zguro in which, for each exhibition, he invites another artist to exhibit alongside him, creating a space for dialogue and shared reflection. Developed in collaboration with ZETA Center for Contemporary Art in Tirana, this edition of DUETS brings together two video works: River of Migration and Fireflies.

In River of Migration, Anne Katrine Senstad documents her lyrical land and light artwork created in California. The work memorializes those who lost their lives attempting to cross the US–Mexico border, while inherently honoring all victims of displacement and the fragile continuity of human memory. Through light interventions in the landscape, Senstad transforms terrain into a site of remembrance and collective consciousness.

In Fireflies, Fani Zguro activates an artificial device to reconstruct the sight of the mating dance of fireflies. During a road trip between Bogotá and Medellín, the artist observed their disappearance—an absence that echoes the reflections of Pier Paolo Pasolini, who viewed fireflies as a metaphor for the gradual vanishing of vital spaces of poetic resistance in the face of cultural and political barbarity.

Together, the two works form a visual and conceptual duet—meditating on loss, disappearance, memory, and the enduring search for light within landscapes marked by movement and erasure.

07/12/2025

Conversing / Agitating the '90s

Alban Hajdinaj / The Estate of Armando Lulaj
(Viktor Strato, David Kampi, Manifesto Collective)

Co-Curated by: The Flying Curators
(Mariko Mikami & An Paenhuysen)

📅 December 13, 2025 – January 20, 2026
🕕 Vernissage: December 13, 18:00
📍 Venue: ZETA Center for Contemporary Art
Hekla Center, Abdyl Frashëri Street, Nd. 8, H.7, Ap. 4 (2nd floor), 1019 Tirana, Albania.

—

"Conversing / Agitating the ‘90s" began with an idea of the flea market as the perfect museum: an open space where things and stories circulate, unregulated by governance, packed with amateur knowledge and emotions, and offering a platform accessible to everyone worldwide. The curators of "Conversing / Agitating the ‘90s," calling themselves Flying Curators, who enjoy traveling formats and thoughts, invited artists Alban Hajdinaj (1974-) and Armando Lulaj (1980-2021) in Tirana, whose artistic practice involves what one of them called being “second hands.” With them, this exhibition aims to explore the ‘90s, a tumultuous period in Albania, when history unfolded, and a time when both artists, as young students, transitioned into contemporary artists. The artists looked through their personal belongings in storage, archives, and went as far as the back of their minds. Treasures are often found in forgotten corners, dark spaces, or in the junk box. One artist wrote: “I found the archival material I was looking for. (…) I was stressed because I thought I’d lost them. But everything was in a small hidden folder…” For the first time, this dead material is now momentarily exposed to the outside so that the light and sound can come in. Amateur historians, confabulators, detectives, gossipers, ghosts, storytellers, and even alter egos of the artist haunt the space, chasing what imagination can resurrect. Exhaled smoke curls and drifts between them, carrying whispered voices of the ‘90s. Both conversing and agitating are modalities of movement. Their dynamics craft encounters that are not fixed or static but rather sustain ongoing processes of transformation. Their participants cannot go back to the same places they left before.

Address

Rruga: "Abdyl Frasheri", Nd. 8, H. 7, Ap. 4
Tirana

Telephone

+355682130180

Website

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