"Natura Morta" (2023)
Performance during the opening of Long-distance Friendships; installation consisting of the chair and petals from the performance
Endri Dani attempts to offer experientially-derived insights into subjects touching upon personal histories as well as anthropology, creating a space that slides between reality and fiction. The artist explores the transition between communism and neoliberalism in Albania. In this work, Dani repeats the forced opening of flower buds he once performed for his sister in the 1990s. Growing up in Schkodër, Albania, where the change of seasons took their time, his sister did not wait for the roses to bloom in spring but instead picked them as buds. While she was at school, the artist opened the petals in all of his sister's bouquets one by one with his hands. The artist remembers her joy and surprise by the forced bloom, but at the same time, he is conscious his rationality manipulated her smile, hinting at the transition between communism and neoliberalism in Albania.
/ Photo credit: Lita Millere / Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art