On July 6, 2023, at 19:30, Harabel Contemporary in collaboration with the Textile and Fashion Atelier of the University of Arts of Tirana, inaugurated the “GurGur” Gallery in Petrela with the “Soft Sculptures” exhibition.
“Soft Sculptures” is a meeting with art lovers and a summary of the artistic and professional journey of the students and lecturers of the Textile and Fashion Atelier, from the University of Arts, with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Environment.
It’s a meeting and a presentation of the works outside the walls of the school, where the process of connecting the works to the new space, with artists and professionals in the field and beyond, is the end-of-year challenge of this program.
Young artists conclude the process by placing the work and themselves in a confrontation with the public and critics.
The exhibition is divided into two spaces without boundaries, inside and outside the walls, where the works are presented in different mediums, dimensions, ideas and concepts.
The works are presented under the motto of being in the avant-garde of the market and proposals for the consumer, by working hard and intelligently not only to survive in the global market, but to also bring innovation to the ongoing efforts to lay the foundations of a contemporary fashion identity, seeing and treating clothing as a phenomenon inseparable from the social and historical context and national mentality.
Tradition is used as a basic ground to support and raise the Albanian fashion of the future, with the belief that fashion based on an authentic territory can make us part of the global market in a sustainable, competitive and dignified way.
This exhibition, assembled with selected works of the students of the Textile and Fashion Atelier, is a testament to intellectual freedom, created step by step through education and information, open-mindedness and alignment with all mediums, with access to art, history and appreciation of the maps of relativity and human psychology.
Based on the belief that a work of art is a unique result of a unique temperament, we have built with the students a process of work and dialogue where the given topic is specifically oriented towards the individual, introducing the students to the process of knowing themselves, to be later reflected in a customized project. The acquisition of artistic processes, through drawing, composition, printing, collages, the creation of two- or three-dimensional works, the knowledge on soft materials, the study of fibers, manipulations, textures, weaving and clothing creation techniques, compose the artistic and professional journey of the students towards finding the individual form of expression as the newest fiber and fashion design artists.
Some of the works in the exhibition are conceptual installations where the narrative is both metaphorical and literal, some aim towards performance, and some aim at relational aesthetics where the interaction between the viewer and the work is direct.
The nature of true creation is rebellion – against what has been, against the habit, the norm, the resistance and the limit of what constitutes “knowing”.