Make-up

In the past decades, Albania has gone through stormy revolutions. Like other countries in Eastern Europe, it has struggled from the grasp of the Communist one-party system after more than forty years, and the new democratic government has launched the burdensome process from planned economy to a free market. In the meantime, the country is suffering the consequences of the war in former Yugoslavia and the disturbances at the border with Macedonia. Since 1969, the sole TV station in Albania has been reporting all these events. RRATHET has been largely compiled from archive footage from these news broadcasts. The pictures are presented along different thematic lines, jointly reflecting the political history and the culture of the Albanians. These themes are the rituals around death, the workers‘ efforts to rebuild their country, the arts and the many parties and commemorations.