Call for Artists

Art Explora Foundation develops its international programme of artists’ and researchers’ residencies with the launch of Tirana Art Residency – Vila 31 x Art Explora, a new programme in Albania whose first call for which the first call for applications is open until 5 June. 

Located at Vila 31, the former domicile of dictator Enver Hoxha, Tirana Art Residency – Vila 31 x Art Explora aims to extend the local dynamic of reopening and reappropriation by the public of this historical venue. The architectural project chosen to renovate Vila 31 has been entrusted to the NeM/Niney et Marca architects, who have sought to maintain a balance between the need to preserve the site and its problematic history and the need to create neutral spaces in which to rewrite new histories. 

Palmistry (手相), a traditional Chinese form of divination that provides mystical insights into an individual's fate and personality traits, analyzes the lines on the palms and fingers, symbolizing the left and right hands as Yin (阴) and Yang (阳)—energies analogous to the lunar and solar, darkness and light. Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel 'The Left Hand of Darkness' draws from similar thoughts in Taoism, encapsulated in the doctrine: “Light is the left hand of darkness, and darkness the right hand of light.