Soulcialism

Soulcialism is a series of twenty collages built on the pages of Artet Figurative në Republikën Popullore të Shqipërisë [The Figurative Arts in the People’s Republic of Albania], an anthology of Albanian propaganda art. Drawing on the iconography of Socialist Realism, the visual language favored by the dictatorship, the series takes as its starting point the display of military authoritarianism and patriotic rhetoric, only to make room for an irony that unsettles the weight of imposed officialdom. Heroes of the people, soldiers and figures of power are deflated. Everything belonging to the imagery of war, and the display of virility that comes with it, takes on paradoxical qualities and is scaled down within a playful frame: frivolity as a lever to defuse violence. It is a reflection on the masculine imperative embodied in the model of the fearless, victorious fighter — and on irony as a feminine practice of resistance to that stereotype.