Edi Hila (Deutsch/Englisch)

The catalogue includes an extensive section of reproductions tracing key moments in the career of "the painter of the Albanian transition", from his formative years to his most recent works.In the 1970s, his painting Planting of Trees caused Edi Hila to fall out of favour with the regime. He was sentenced to three years of forced labour at a poultry packing factory, where, cut off from any kind of cultural life, he produced a series of existentialist drawings depicting the harsh realities at the factory. Once the Hoxha regime had come to its end, Hila was free to develop his highly personal style of painting, this time with a reduced colour palette, to chronicle the sociopolitical change in Albania.Text: Corinne Diserens, Edi Hila, Olsi Lelaj, Joa Ljungberg, Jana Pfort, Gëzim Qëndro, Lea Ypi