The creative process as a metamorphosis
Interview with Zef Shoshi
Abstract
In the history of Albanian Socialist Realist art, the period spanning from the 1960s to 1973 is known as a relatively fervent period in terms of creative freedom, especially in comparison to the period following 1973. For visual artists, experimentation with modernist modes of expression and innovative approaches to creative practice were not only possible – they were also supported by the press and Party-state institutions. In this sense, many of the works created under this encouraging spirit were not essentially works against the system and the very figurative approach of reflecting reality in art, but simply works slightly different in terms of formal treatments.Downloads
References
Translated into English by Raino Isto.
Ermir Hoxha, “Nga artikulli i Alfred Uçit te fjalimi i Enverit. Si nisi fushata kundër artit e kulturës pas Festivalit të 11-të”, Panorama, 1 February 2020, http://www.panorama.com.al/nga-artikulli-i-alfred-ucit-te-fjalimi-i-enverit-si-nisi-fushata-kunder-kultures-e-artit-pas-festivalit-te-11-te/ [last accessed 15 May 15 2023]. 3 Held in Tirana on June 26 to 28, 1973, the 4th Plenum of the Albanian Party of Labor’s Central Committee would launch the most extreme campaign directed at art and culture in the country. The plenum opened with the report of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party, entitled “To deepen the ideological struggle against foreign influences and liberal attitudes towards them,” a speech delivered by Enver Hoxh himself in his function as the First Secretary of the Central Committee. In this speech, Hoxha called for a state and Party policy dedicated to an emergency effort to address “a great and vital problem for the Party, and for the issue of socialist construction”. According to him, the signs of hostile liberalism – influenced by foreign bourgeois-revisionist taste – had spread across practically in every aspect of life. The main culprits for this, according to Hoxha, were the Party Committee of Tirana, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Union of Writers and Artists.
Fjalori Enciklopedik Shqiptar, Tirana: Academy of Sciences, 1985, p. 847.
Enver Hoxha, “Të thellojmë luftën ideologjike kundër shfaqjeve të huaja e qëndrimeve liberale ndaj tyre,” in Hoxha, Raporte e fjalime: 1972-1973, Tirana: Shtëpia Botuese “Naim Frashëri”, 1974, pp. 277-376 (p. 354).
Ibid., p. 355.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 356.
Ibid., p. 360.
Ibid., p. 356.
Ibid., p. 365.
Ibid., pp. 370-371.
Ibid., p. 368
Ibid., p. 362.
Ermir Hoxha, “Nga artikulli i Alfred Uçit te fjalimi i Enverit. Si nisi fushata kundër artit e kulturës pas Festivalit të 11-të”.
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