Art Explora, the mobile cultural festival that takes place on the deck of a museum ship. Built with the intention of crossing seas and oceans, the festival offers innovative artistic experiences completely free of charge. On its journey across the Mediterranean, the Art Explora Festival celebrates local artists and promotes a dialogue about the greatest challenges of our time.
After dropping anchor in Malta, Italy, France, Morocco and Spain, the festival is heading towards Albania, to stop in Durrës, from April 10 to 21, 2025 .
The first stop of the Art Explora Festival will be the Port of Durrës. The artistic program is curated by the Albanian curator Arnisa Zeqo , in collaboration with Anima Pictures responsible for the production. The festival is organized on the deck of the first museum ship in the world and on the quay of the port. Conceived in several pavilions and collective spaces, with a program that combines exhibitions, virtual reality, performances, talks, film screenings and concerts. The festival offers programming adapted to all types of audiences, with workshops dedicated to schools and local groups.
This interdisciplinary program, with performances, concerts, film screenings, dance performances, workshops and discussions, is open to all, offering innovative artistic and cultural experiences COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE .
Art Explora Festival Program in Durrës, April 10 to 21
IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE ON THE DECK OF THE MUSEUM SHIP:
On Deck: An immersive sound experience centered around the richness and diversity of the Mediterranean, designed and produced by IRCAM (French Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music at the Pompidou Center in Paris) and Ircam Amplify.
Inside the Ship : Travel through time and space with the virtual reality series Mediterranean Wonders . Developed with Ubisoft, this installation allows you to experience glorious Mediterranean cities, such as Athens, Alexandria and Venice.
EXHIBITION PAVILIONS AT THE HARBOR QUAY:
The immersive exhibition The Present, created as part of an extraordinary collaboration with the Louvre Museum, highlights through the digitization of some of its collections, figures of women in Mediterranean civilization. The cultural event is divided into two stages and begins with an introductory film that provides the context for the subsequent immersive experience. The latter takes place in a 16-meter-long tunnel, covered with 120 m2 of LED screens.
The contemporary art exhibition Under the Azure , in the central pavilion, is a collection of works by around 20 artists, inspired by the evocative power of the Mediterranean Sea, the myths that surround it, the creatures that inhabit it and the visions it brings to life. Artists featured in the exhibition include: Etel Adnan, Simone Fattal, Edi Hila, Marguerite Humeau, Marisa Merz, Joan Miró and Anri Sala.
Curators: Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel and Blanche de Lestrange
The photography pavilion features the photography and moving image exhibition Undertow, which focuses on the relationships between hospitality, migration and alienation through the work of around 15 contemporary artists from the Arab world. Artists featured in the exhibition include: Majd Abdel Hamid, Bouchra Khalili, Randa Maroufi, Valentin Noujaïm, Sara Sadik and Akram Zaatari.
Curators: Amanda Abi Khalil and Danielle Makhoul
Important moments of the festival, whose opening starts on April 10 and is FREE for the audience: Performance and Poetry, Artistic Installations, Concerts and DJ Sets, Ocean Weekend (April 19-21) – Discussions and performances about the climate emergency. In addition to the very interesting program, what gives it more value are the most prominent names of artists who will be on the festival agenda such as: Mykki Blanco, Elsa Lila, Astrit Ismaili, Mimoza Ahmeti, Selma Selman and many others.
From spring 2024 to autumn 2027, the museum ship will travel to 15 countries in the Mediterranean – cradle of great civilizations and the intersection of cultures – connecting artists, exhibition curators, cultural, educational and NGO organizations who will all together imagine a new vision of the Mediterranean. 5 of these stops are co-financed by the European Union, through the Creative Europe program.
Art Explora Festival, Port of Durres
April 10:
Opening for journalists at 3pm
Opening for the public at 5:30pm
April 11 - 21:
The Museum Ship is open from 11am-9pm.
The Exhibition Pavilions are open from 11am-10pm.
Program & Tickets
https://www.artexplora.org/sq/festival/ville/durres
Contact:
Ervin Qafmolla
[email protected]
+355 69 707 77 11
