Lori Lako. Rememory in Pistoia
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Opening: Sunday 31 May, 11:00 am – 8:00 pm
31 May – 31 July 2026
text by Stefania Rispoli
From 31 May to 31 July 2026, the ME Vannucci gallery in Pistoia will host ‘Rememory’, a solo exhibition by the artist Lori Lako (Pogradec, Albania, 1991), which explores the complex layers of contemporary power, moving between technological archaeology and the manipulation of symbols of national identity. The exhibition is accompanied by a text by Stefania Rispoli.
The heart of the exhibition lies in a series of hand-woven kilims, where the icons of nationalism drawn from various flags merge into fantastical chimeras, challenging the rigidity of symbols. Through an installation of damaged smartphone screens revealing Cold War satellite secrets, the artist draws a parallel between the orbital surveillance of yesterday and the digital self-exposure of today.
The exploration continues in the AI-generated video, which brings to life an Italian family’s journey through the ideological Albania of 1978—a political pilgrimage navigating propaganda and private life, made possible only by membership of the Communist Party.
In the graphic series on display, cyanotype shifts towards sepia to recount the betrayed promises of the Y2K utopia (Year 2000, a school of thought embodying the epochal transition to the digital age, torn between technological euphoria for the new millennium and apocalyptic anxiety), whilst anastatic prints ‘strip’ propaganda fabrics of their softness. Transforming military garments into artefacts ca
Rememory exposes the fragility of dominant narratives, dissolving fixed identities into the weave of fabric and the shattered glass of technology.
‘Rememory’ is a neologism coined by the African-American writer Toni Morrison (Lorain, 18 February 1931 – New York, 5 August 2019) in her masterpiece *Beloved*, a novel that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. More than just a memory, the term describes the idea that the past does not fade away but continues to float in space.
“I was talking about time. It’s so hard for me to believe it. Some things pass, they go away. Others, however, remain. I used to think it was my rememory. You know, some things you forget, others you never forget. But that’s not how it is. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place — the image of it — remains, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world.”
Lori Lako (Pogradec, Albania, 1991). She studied Painting and New Expressive Languages at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and Munich. She lives and works between Italy and Albania. Her practice explores themes of memory, the construction of identity and the power of images, through videos, installations and multimedia works that combine archival materials, digital reconstructions and personal narrative.
Notable solo exhibitions include: È da un po' che non sogno di volare, a solo exhibition curated by Ilaria Mariotti, Villa Pacchiani Exhibition Centre, Santa Croce sull'Arno, 2024 (IT); Ich höre einen Vogel Klagen, I hear a bird lament, a project in collaboration with the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Lichtungen Magazine & Rotor Center for Contemporary Art, Landesbibliothek, Graz, 2024 (AT); Scripta Festival, a project by Pietro Gaglianò, Brac Library, Florence, 2023 (IT); Going Nowhere Slow, curated by Darko Vukic, Bazement Art Space, Tirana, 2023 (AL); Assuming we can reach the sky, Residency Unlimited, New York, 2022 (USA); Made in Italy, OFF, a project curated by Sergio Risaliti, Museo Novecento, Florence, 2020 (IT); Still Life, a two-person exhibition with Adrian Paci, curated by Alessandra Poggianti, Terzopiano Arte Contemporanea, Lucca, 2019 (IT); Lontano da dove, (Lesfull) with Arber Elezi, a project by Pier Luigi Tazzi, Fondazione Lanfranco Baldi, Pelago, 2013 (IT).
He has participated in group exhibitions in public and private venues in Italy
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