Christopher Gil. Forge

National Archaeological Museum of Durrës

DiBoca Director: Oltsen Gripshi
Chief curator: Massimo Scaringella
Curator of the pavilion: Monika Weychert
Curatorial and production support: Dominika Kaszewska
Exhibition prepared in cooperation with: Zachęta — National Gallery of Art Partners: Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tirana

Dr. Krzysztof Gil, artist and lecturer at the Institute of Painting and Art Education UKEN, will take part in the second edition of the International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Durrës (DiBoca), which will be held in Albania between 1 and 31 October 2026.

This year's edition of the Biennale takes place under the slogan “Periphery: Visual Transitions” and brings together artists from different countries whose work addresses issues related to, among others, peripherality, identity, memory and contemporary social transformations. This year's edition is curated by Massimo Scaringella.

As the organizers emphasize, the periphery can be a kind of laboratory for the contemporary artist — a space for observation and interpretation of social phenomena, traditions and practices shaping anthropological reality. This year's theme of the Biennale thus opens up a space for the presentation of diverse, local and peripheral experiences of artists from many countries.

“Forge/Forge”

As part of the Biennale, Krzysztof Gil, representing Poland, will present the installation “Forge/Forge”. The paper deals with the historical and contemporary mechanisms of exclusion and ways of constructing the image of Roma in European culture. The reference point for the installation are, among others, the history of the concept of “ghetto”, the practice of the so-called “human zoos” and stereotypical representations of “gypsy art”.

The artist transforms these references into a spatial installation in which figures and materials related to the blacksmith tradition become carriers of memory and critical reflection on representation and marginalization. The juxtaposition of motifs related to crafts and the history of the Roma community allows us to look at the processes of exclusion not only from a historical perspective, but also through the prism of contemporary ways of representing and interpreting identity.

The presentation of “Forge/Forge” as part of the international Biennale is part of the theme of this year's edition, which focuses on the experiences of communities operating on cultural and geographical peripheries and on the ways of their representation in contemporary art.