On September 7, 2023, Harabel Contemporary inaugurated “All the light we cannot see”, an exhibition with the works of well-known Albanian painter, Ali Oseku, at Harabel’s exhibition space “NAAN Gallery”.

“There is beauty in almost everything”, grandmother used to say. But you have to be attentive, you have to see and not only look.

And often you’ll find it standing right there, in front of you, serenely, every day, every night, in eternal repetition.

Nature, the skies, the trees, the little village which always seems peaceful from afar, the changing of the seasons, day leaving place to night. The night. Right there.

And if you can see it, there is no need to be romantic to understand it, no need to describe it with important words; beauty is clear, truthful and unmistakable, it does not request attention, it does not need to prove anything. And often it is simple, as is the beauty of ordinary things.

And then there is that singular silent beauty only a few people possess, the kind of beauty you cannot name.

I call it Light.

And some have more of it.

And some others see it better. In the movements of the leaves. In the words of a poet. In the sound of the night. In people. In us.

Ali Oseku has this rare capacity: he sees the light.

When he looks at the skies, when he watches the trees move with the wind, when the sun goes down. In his wife’s eyes or in her everyday gestures of love. He even sees it in the darkest days of his life. On the other side of a prison’s wall.

In pain.

In silence.

In what is simple.

In what is ordinary.

In what has been repeating since the birth of time.

And then he paints it. In all the possible colors our eyes can see.

No need for a name, no need for an explanation.

And then we too, see it.

Curatorial text By Ajola Xoxa