Alban Hajdinaj: Forking Paths
30 May – 20 June 2025
Vernissage: Thursday 29 May, at 6pm

ZETA Contemporary Art Center is proud to present Forking Paths, an exhibition of new work by
Alban Hadinaj, curated in conversation with British curator Elizabeth Neilson
Known for his work with painting, collage, video and language, Alban Hajdinaj has spent the last
three decades appropriating and claiming readily available found objects, images and
ephemera; drawing attention to the stories they represent and contain. Pointing to the
subjectivities and inconsistencies in any idea of history as an inert or objective study.
Exhibited for the first time are a group of new collages referencing soldiers and partisan fighters,
this cast of specifically male subjects are projected, drawn and photographed figures. In these
works, the fabric of the image is subtly and subjectively tampered with. In one series, pairs of
anonymous soldiers are photographed together in uniform, a not uncommon souvenir perhaps
to be sent home to family or kept in the soldier’s locker or trunk. The face of one of the figures in
the analogue black and white photographic print has been replaced with a cut out, a drawn and
printed substitution. This intervention has not altered the composition or subject of image in an
any dramatic or subversive way, but the anonymous young men have had their history altered. A mirror has been held up to soldiers in every era, the idealistic heroism inherent in their actions
and the fact they can be replaced with ease.
Hajdinaj hybridises his chosen imagery, not digitally, but in a consciously manual and oldfashioned
manner, cutting and pasting, or painting directly onto a photographic image, drawing
attention to the construction of the image and its potential to be altered and still read as real.
His analogue and archaic approach draws attention to the history of the ‘post-truth’ era of fake
news, algorithmic misinformation, artificial intelligence and never-ending news cycles. On show
alongside his hybrids are original archival materials that reveal the manipulation of images and
stories in the media. Drawing our attention to the history of images and the political nature of
exhibition making, Hajdinaj gently picks away at the scars of history revealing the fibres of
society that hold these stories together.

-ENDS-

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Alban Hajdinaj (b.1974) is an artist from Albania. He studied graphics at the Academy of Arts in Tirana
Albania and worked as researcher at the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana Albania. His works have been
exhibited at Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris,
International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York, Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art,
Trento and Rovereto, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, The Albanian Pavulliion a the 52nd Venice
Biennale, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, Moderna Galerija, Lubljana, National Gallery of Kosovo,
National Gallery of Arts, Tirana, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg Vienna, Manifesta 4, Frankfurt, IFA
Gallery Berlin/Bonn and Tirana Biennale 1. His work is represented in several international collections
including the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris (Centre George Pompidou), Ludwig Museum
Budapest, Peter und Irene Ludwig Foundation, National Gallery of Arts, Tirana, FMAC Paris, Zabludowicz
Collection, Kadist Foundation. His last solo exhibition with ZETA took place April 2023. He lives and works
in Tirana, Albania.

Elizabeth Neilson is a curator and writer based in London, her specialisms include the impact on
technology on art and nurturing early career artists. She is Co-Director for Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre a non-profit organisation supporting the advancement of sculpture through educational, critical and
cultural programming. Since 2006 she has been Director of the Zabludowicz Collection, overseeing the
strategy, acquisitions, and commissions of an international art collection with a public ethos.

ZETA Center for Contemporary Art is a non-profit exhibition space founded in 2007 by Valentina Koça.
With its 150 square-meter area on the second floor of a mixed residential and commercial building at
Abdyl Frashëri Street in downtown Tirana, ZETA functions as an autonomous cultural venue for
multidisciplinary approaches to visual arts, including painting, sculpture, photography, video,
installation, sound, and performance.

UK PRESS, FOR MORE INFORMATION & IMAGES PLEASE CONTACT
Elizabeth Neilson elizabethneilson@gmail.com +44 7872 399 815

ZETA Center for Contemporary Art
ADDRESS: Hekla Center, Abdyl Frashëri Street, Nd.8, H.7, Ap.4 (2nd floor), 1019, Tirana, Albania
PHONE: 00355 68 21 30180
EMAIL: zetagaleri@gmail.com
WEBSITE: https://qendrazeta.com
FACEBOOK: zeta.galeri
OPENING TIMES: Monday to Friday, 11.00-18.00. Saturday: 11.00-14.00. Sunday: closed