01.05.2004 – 30.06.2004
Does real balance exist?
National Gallery Tirana , Albania
Time, dreams, home, drawings, my world collected in a big suitcase. I have put all my drawings in and I’m leaving for another journey. I’m leaving for Tirana. In it is my entire world, my time, my poetry, my culture, my past and many other dreams for the future. An art work made up of 31 drawings, statements, a poetry dreaming of travel. I created this work while travelling and then put all of it in this big suitcase made of red rope.
In one of my drawings I ask a question “What do we need time for and how can we measure it??
You need time to draw, to dream, to go on this journey, to sew, to chat, you need time for Turkish coffee and time that I never had to stay close to my mother.
I never thought I would have liked sewing. Being away from home, from my mother and not in contact with my culture, I discovered that I like it. I rediscovered this tradition that has passed from one generation to another in my family.
This embroidery frame has been on a long journey itself, in the world of the women in my family: from my grandmother to my mother, from my mother to my sister, and finally to me. This unusual embroidery frame in Albania has been used exclusively to sew the bottom draw of the future bride. My great-grandmother made it for my grandmother, my grandmother for my mother, my mother for my sister and she has always hoped that maybe one day she will also make mine.
It’s really funny isn’t it???
I’m happy at least I can show her that I can sew. I’m happy that she is participating in this performance with me in my exhibition, sewing my small world made up of dreams and drawings. Eventually I have spent time with her. I understand a small part of her world made exclusively of sewn flowers.
We do not sew in the corner of a room as she usually does but in an Art Space in front of art lovers.
I’m happy to show our marvellous embroidery and I invite everyone to sit on the cushions that are on the floor around our big and noble embroidery frame. I’m happy to go on this journey with her in my world that’s not only any more mine but her world too.
Thanks to my mother Shpresa Rubiku for the realization of this art work.