Commissioned by
Marubi National Museum of Photography, Shköder, Albania
Curator
Kim Knoppers
Date
2016
Photography was ‘officially’ invented in 1839. Already in 1841 the first public pho- tography studio in Europe was opened on a roof in London. Pjetër Marubbi (1834-1903) started his photo business around 1859 in Shkodra. He was succeeded by Kel Marubi (1870-1940) and Gegë Marubi (1907-1984). Their stories are told in the permanent exhibition of the Marubi Museum.
The Marubi’s were a ‘dynasty’ of male studio photographers in the male dominated society of Albania. Nowadays it has become clear that the discourse of European history of photography has left out the contribution of women as makers but often as subjects as well. Women were often sidelined. In placing women centre stage, this exhibition aimed to honor the women in the Marubi Archive.
Some of the women depicted by the Marubi’s were influential and extraordinary in their time like Shaqe Çoba (1875-1954). She was the first woman intellectual of the city of Shkodra and an activist of the women’s and national independence movements. Or guerrilla fighter Tringe Smajli (1880-1917). She fought against the Ottoman empire in the Northern region of Albania. After the imprisonement of her father in Anatolia and the death of her brothers she became a sworn virgin and joined the rebels. Shote Galica (1895-1927), born in today’s Kosovo, was a prominent figure in the Albanian liberation movement. She was a legend in her time and known for the saying: “Life without knowledge is like a war without weapons. Or singer Tefta Tashko-Koço (1910-1947): as a singer she was a regular guest at Radio Tirana. She died unexpectedly at the age of thirtyseven.
However, this exhibition not only tells the heroic story of famous women but also presents women who often have been forgotten. To anonymous women who lived their lives in the margins of society. These were poor women who offered themselves to men for money, women who had done something socially unaceptable or women with misshapen faces due to medical conditions. They are ignored because we usually don’t want to face discomfort. There are not many of these images in the Marubi archive but if you look carefully you will find them.
In the exhibition we also become acquainted with important women in the lives of the Marubi’s themselves: the wives of Pjetër Marubbi and Gegë Marubi, the mother of Kel Marubi and Bernardine, the daughter of Kel Marubi. For a while she worked in the studio and organized and recorded the negatives. Occasionally she took photographs herself. When she married to the Albanian composer Tonin Harapi the couple moved to Tirana.
The exhibition includes a number of photographs of places that were often visited by women. In this way their portraits are provided with some context about the sur- roundings in which their lives took place.
Different media are presented in the exhibition: original glass negatives and stereo photographs from the dawn of photography, modern reproductions and a slideshow on five screens. The glass negatives are exhibited in a central display. This acted as an index for the modern reproductions on the wall and provided background information (the numbers in the display correspond to the numbers on the wall). The slideshow on the five screens on the back wall show in an associative manner the similarities between women in clothing, style, ways of posing, expression of religious preference and socioeconomic background. It is thanks to the Marubi archive that we are able to meet this wide variety of women today.
This is the first exhibition in a series called Archive Reloaded. This series shows that an archive, in this case the Marubi archive, is a living organism subject to multiple interpretations which change throughout history. For this series, artists, curators, writers, sociologists, philosophers and historians are invited to make their selection from the archive to share with you. The point of view from these guest curators who do not know all the ins and outs from the collection but have a strong connection to it, may provide space for surprising interpretations. The first curator for Archive Reloaded is Kim Knoppers, art historian and curator at Foam, photography museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is also the curator of the exhibition Dynasty Marubi – A Hundred Years of Albanian Studio Photography (2016) in Foam in Amsterdam. Both were made possible by the advice of Luçjan Bedeni, director of the Marubi Museum. Women from the Marubi Archive was also made possible by Olson Lamaj, artist and coordinator for the Marubi Musealisation Project.
