Works

FILM / INSTALLATION

Koncert Në Vitin 2014


2014

HD video 5.10 mins color/sound, pigment-prints, table.
—How you cheated us, Oh Zare. How beautiful you are.
The project departs from the Albanian film Koncert Në Vitin 1936 (Saimir Kumbaro, 1978), a film that can be understood as formulating a subtle; yet a sharp critique of the Albanian Communist system (from) within the system itself.  Inspired by the biography of the soprano Tefta Tashko-Koço (1910–1947), the original film follows two traveling emancipated women—a soprano and a pianist. As a catalyst, the women perform Zare Trëntafile; a well-known love song addressed to a woman. Zare, a feminine coded name, means “dice” in Albanian and is also jargon for someone who is easily played with, or bullied. Additionally, it can be another word for a prostitute. 
Trëntafile refers to the flower rose. The music is part of the local Urban Lyrics tradition, made popular in the 1930s by Tashko-Koço.

By way of photographs, material from Albanian National Film Archive, and a restaged performance in the decayed “mausoleum” Piramida starring the young performer Lepurushja from the human rights organization Aleanca LGBT, the connotations and meaning of the song are investigated. The work raises questions on how existing narratives are being used, how these can be reimagined, and how one creates identification and make them one’s own when nothing else is there. 

Koncert Në Vitin 2014, film stills. Cinematography: Donika Lekaj.
Koncert Në Vitin 2014. Installation View, Zeta Gallery, Tirana 2024.
Koncert Në Vitin 2014, HD video 6.10 mins. Cinematography: Donika Lekaj.
Koncert Në Vitin 2014. Installation View, Zeta Gallery, Tirana 2024.
Starring: Lepurushja. Director, Editing and Grading: Conny Karlsson Lundgren. Cinematographer: Donika Lekaj. Sound: Jesper Norda. Assistant Livia Zotrija. 2nd assistant Xheni Alushi. Project manager: Elvis Hoxhaj. Producer: Maja-Lena Molin, Nicolas Hasselqvist.
Koncert Në Vitin 2014 was produced as part of a residency in collaboration with the Albanian organization Aleanca LGBT and the Swedish Unstraight Museum.Special Thanks: The Star & the Crew, Maja-Lena Molin, Vincent van Gerven Oei, Eriona Vyshka (AQSHF), The Unstraight Museum, The Aleanca LGBT, Zidita Zaja, Xheni Karaj, Elidjon Grembi.
Exhibitions: Zeta Gallery, Tirana, Albania. Stockholm County Museum, Stockholm SE. D12 Kunstraum, Leipzig, DE. Kunsthall Nikolaj, Copenhagen, DK. Screenings: Tempo Dokumentär Festival, Stockholm SE. TriBeCa Film Center, New York City US.

 ©MMXV Conny Karlsson Lundgren