Last Minute Shopping List
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The Gold Collection
Edition by Stefan Burger for PROVENCE
EUR 90 BUY Over the past 25 years, Stefan Burger has developed a conceptual and eclectic practice across photography, film, and sculpture that examines the material, technical, and institutional conditions under which images are produced, reproduced, and exhibited. The Gold Collection echoes Burger’s recent solo exhibition at tichyocean, discussed in the PROVENCE newsletter by Clemens Krümmel.
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Silbriges Bild mit Löchern II, 2025 / Silvery Image with Holes II, 2025, Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 188 gsm, 210 × 297 mm, Signed, numbered, and titled on verso, Edition of 20 + 5 AP
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MD72—Door Slamming Festival (2007–2018)
Got Berlin nostalgia for the 2010s?
EUR 45 BUY Door Slamming Festival is conceived and edited, among others, by writer and curator Dominic Eichler and revolves around Galerie Neu co-owner and collector Alexander Schröder’s experimental exhibition space MD72, which ran in Berlin from 2007 until 2018. For PROVENCE, MD72 was a formative and not unimportant nurturing ground during the 2010s. The book includes several PROVENCE related highlights. Among them Depuis (2010), an installation by Nick Mauss and Ken Okiishi originally produced for the exhibition Issue 0, curated by PROVENCE at Halle für Kunst in Lüneburg in 2010. The publication also documents Merlin Carpenter’s painting series L’Absinth from 2010, first shown at PROVENCE’s office in Nice in 2011, as well as John Knight’s sun deck chairs, previously presented in the exhibition In the Middle of Affairs: The Aesthetics of Distribution at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart in 2010. Goodbye Berlin.
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MD72—Door Slamming Festival (2007–2018), 560 pages, 75 texts, 450 colour illustrations, Edited by Alexander Schröder with Dominic Eichler and Marianna von Palombini, Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König
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2026 Calendar
Atelier E.B
EUR 30 BUY Still in need of a 2026 calendar? Got no time for window shopping? Atelier E.B (Edinburgh–Brussels) is the collaborative project of designer Beca Lipscombe and artist Lucy McKenzie. Their 2026 calendar is devoted to Atelier E.B’s spectacular window-display works. Why online shopping when you can window-shop, or was it the other way around?
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Atelier E.B, Calendar 2026, 62 pages, 12 colour illustrations, Published by Bierke
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TV-Display painting by Milena Langer
Hamburger Kunstverein Jahresgaben
EUR 1800 BUY Our window focus continues with an over-painted TV screen by artist Milena Langer. The Jahresgaben is this peculiar German format where every Kunstverein offers artworks and editions, often hidden somewhere on their homepage in a PDF, to support their forthcoming annual program. Window is from her series Strokes. The brushstrokes are oriented towards the formal grid of the display visible in the digital sensors on the sides; the screen’s original function as a grid is thus restored.
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Window, 2025 Milena Langer, TV-Display, Holz, Lack, 84 x 55.5 x 4 cm, Unikat
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Candle handmade by PROVENCE from 100% beeswax.
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The PROVENCE City Guide: Tirana
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In 2011 we created The PROVENCE City Guide: Nice, a riff on the at the time hip Wallpaper City Guide Series. Today The PROVENCE City Guide is a bookable format, similar to Emily in Paris, White Lotus, Woody Allen’s city movie series or the Manifesta’s fly in gentrification program. In late November we attended the Tirana Art Weekend, a truly great format, which you shouldn’t miss in 2026. Please find herewith our complimentary The PROVENCE City Guide: Tirana and use our google maps link to find the recommended places. No need to read this right now. Important is to save it for next year when you are heading to the Tirana Art Weekend 2026. Of course you can use the following itinerary on any of your next trips to Albania’s thriving capital or simply enjoy our Tirana Art Weekend 2025 right now.
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HOTELS Destil B&B: Simple, good rooms. I was set up here by the Tirana Art Weekend and can’t complain. Nothing fancy. Nearby Vila 31 x Art Explora, the former dictator’s villa which since earlier this year hosts an international artists residency program. Roof Top: As the hotel name suggests, skyscraper rooms with a great view of Tirana. Hotel Epidamn Boutique: Tirana Art Weekend takes place in early December, too cold to swim. That’s why I didn’t go down to the coast but certainly will do that next spring or early autumn and then stay at Hotel Epidamn Boutique & Spa in Durres before heading down south with my rental. COFFEE Hana Corner Coffee: Just around the corner from Destil B&B I discovered this great hipster coffee place. Perfect for a slow start into the day. Magnolia Coffee: Not a barista place but a great afternoon stop. Close to the Agimi Art Center.
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ART National Art Gallery: Was under renovation. Minus Art Space: Is an artist-run space and showed the exhibition The Fool by New York based artist and former law translator Ridge Telegrafi. A great show. A study to build the character The Fool as part of a long-term project with more and more characters to be developed. Agimi Art Center: After a failed attempt due to a major blackout to see a selection of art films curated by Arnold Braho I returned in the evening to attend the premiere of In Search of Poetry by Lorin Terezi presented by Tek Bunkeri. The film was cinematically not challenging but had a great storyline: a former political prisoner is searching for a hidden poetry notebook which they hid in a wall when building an apartment as part of their prison time. Spoiler: He can’t find it anymore. Bazament Art Space: Across the street from Vila 31. An interesting new artists’ initiative. Vila 31 x Art Explora: Albania’s 40-year-long dictator’s home turned into an international artist residence, to quote Albania’s PM Edi Rama, himself an artist, so that Enver Hoxha turned himself in the grave.
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DINE Aloha Fish & Grill: After visiting the Independent Book Fair and friends from Lithuania attending with their Neringa Forest Architecture publications I had a great fish dinner nearby. Tavolata: Truly amazing place where the Tirana Art Weekend team organized a lunch. Slow food member. Regional, organic ingredients. Great interior. By far the best in town. SNACKS Cinnamon Buns: As a victim of all trends I had to source the best cinnamon buns in town, you find them at SEASONE’D. Mik Mak: Legedary borek place in Korce. NIGHTLIFE Tunèl Terrace: Nita Deda, head of programme at Vila 31 x Art Explora, was so kind to invite me not to the former Enver Hoxha home but her own to say farewell to a group of artists that stayed the last three months at the villa, including ______ from Marseille who decided to stay in Tirana for good, at least for now: “I couldn’t find this peace and inspiration, tranquility and yet pace in France any more.” At the same place I also met Rubin Beqo who runs Tunèl Terrace and has a great deal to say about Robert Frank The Americans and the current state of The Albanians. His club is the go-to in town but also has a great terrace for Sunday brunches.
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GETAWAY Having spent a fair amount researching also a great hamam or sauna I haven’t found yet the dream place. This is also the reason why I left last night to the small city of Korce to stay at Life Gallery & Spa, a really great place created by its founder Spiro Bardhi in 2011. To get to Korce take a minibus from Tirana’s East Bus Terminal and ride for approx 3h, a great ride of its own and spend 7 Euro one way. On the way you will get an espresso for 70 cents. TIRANA ART WEEK RATING Overall great experience, super nice hosts. Very interesting. Recommended! What perhaps was missing is a pillar stone artwork (literally) like Adrian Paci’s The Column (2013), an artwork which documents in a great way the madness of globalization, cheap labour and Albania’s juggle in the midst of all this. Paci made the work for the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 and it consists of a large column carved out of a marble slab on the way from China to Venice on a so-called factory boat and a film with the same title documenting this journey. In 2017 Latvian collector Māris Vītols acquired the artwork intended to become the opening pillar for the new Latvian Contemporary Art Museum (Canceled). I just read Lea Ypi’s book Free about her upbringing in Tirana in the 80s and 90s. A must read. A Coca-Cola can plays an important role in the narrative and the cover of the book shows a rose placed inside a cola can, only the brand name has been removed. Either this happened due to copyright concerns with the US beverage giant or, more likely, because the publisher did not want to offer free advertising for such a ubiquitous product. But then almost the entire book circles around the symbolism and mythology of this very object. This contradiction says a lot about our current cultural condition: we critique capitalism while simultaneously choreographing its icons, trying to erase the logo but keeping the desire, the aura and the global familiarity intact. It is a perfect metaphor for how culture today navigates between dependency, resistance and aestheticised consumption. DISCLAIMER ON REVERSE ENGINEERING And of course you can still explore the world of reverse engineering. The best arrive directly from China through the port. Why would you pay 3k for a Prada jacket? Finding a 1:1 or AA or mirror is way harder and when you finally have it the dopamine level is higher and the story is much better than signifying the world that you don’t need to work and that you chill in the art world because you have nothing better to do.
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