Edi Rama: Work

The oeuvre of the Albanian artist and prime minister Edi Rama is inseparable from his political career. During telephone conferences and meetings, he does drawings and watercolors on the copies of his schedule, his work notes, on minutes, faxes, and other pieces of correspondence. The art he produces in the environs of national power forms an abstract journal, a vivid recording of political life and the everyday tensions between power and art. Work is the first publication to present the drawings, ceramic sculptures, and tapestry, which was inspired by a similar tapestry in Rama's office in Tirana. Made up of more than seven hundred of Rama's drawings, the tapestry runs throughout the entire book, creating an immanent connection between his works. Besides essays on Rama's work, the book also features a conversation with the artist.
Edi Rama's ( 1964, Tirana) work has been shown at the 2017 Venice Biennial and the 1994 São Paulo Biennale, the Haus der Kunst in Munich, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and other renowned institutions. He began his political career as Albania's cultural minister in 1998 and was elected Albania's prime minister for the second time in 2017.