"A Short Story Behind Everyday Myths" Friday 4 Oct 2024, 7pm with Olson Lamaj

Artist Talk by Olson Lamaj at [SIC] Athens
Friday 4th October at 19:00 hrs

"A Short Story Behind Everyday Myths"
Olson Lamaj will be joining us to present his recent artistic research in conversation with curator, Pati Vardhami.
Olson will explore how nationally fused symbols around us convey multiple layers of meaning and how to trace their trajectories in the public domain. Drawing from his experience in a country with a communist past and a prevailing nationalist present, he will discuss ideologies as interlocuters with our sense of the everyday. Through his research on social and political signifiers, together with Pati Vardhami they will look at art interventions as possible disorientations of factual dispositions and semantic fixations.

Olson Lamaj was born in Albania. He graduated as a painter from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and earned an M.A. in artistic photography from the Academy of Fine Arts Brera in Milan. After completing his studies, he returned to Albania, where he currently lives and works. Lamaj’s work explores social and political themes, focusing on both contemporary Albanian life and universal systems of meaning. His projects highlight the semiotic saturation and mystical qualities of objects and images tied to political ideologies. His artworks serve as a collective mythography of the present, fostering the creation of new myths.
His work has been shown in numerous institutions and galleries including Zeta Gallery (AL, 2023), Tallin Art Hall, (Estonia, 2022), Bazament Art Space (AL,2019), Die Kunsthalle Exnergasse im WUK (Austria, 2019), Ludwig Museum Budapest, (Hungary, 2016).

Olson Lamaj is also editor and curator of ‘Pararoja’, an independent artists’ publications that he established in 2020. ‘Pararoja’ focuses on promoting visual artists’ stories through limited-edition fanzines and other self-produced art materials, exploring alternative editorial possibilities in the field of contemporary art. He will be present at the Athens Art Book Fair 2024, where he will present new editions of various artists’ work produced throughout the year.

Pati Vardhami is a curator and writer. She has studied Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths College and has worked with art institutions in Athens, Tirana and London. Her collaborations include Tavros, Melas Martinos, Frieze Project and Talks, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Hayward Gallery and Tirana Biennale of Contemporary Art among others. She is based in Athens and Tirana.

This event takes place in the framework of the Athens Art Book Fair 2024.
Athens Art Book Fair is an artist-run initiative aiming to bring together and showcase artist publications produced in Greece as well as to create a link with publishing-based artistic practices (print, online and else) internationally.