Artist Recreates Images of Albanian Communist-Era Prisoners’ Lives

An exhibition of drawings by Albanian artist Ina Elezi, based on her conversations with former prisoners who were jailed at Spac, where Albania's Communist regime used political detainees as forced labour, went on display on Sunday at the Destil Creative Hub in Tirana.

Her images at the exhibition depict the everyday life of prisoners at the jail in a remote location in northern Albania, and their work in nearby copper and pyrite mines.

"As a member of a younger generation, I had no idea [about the prison]. We heard that 'it was difficult' but when you hear it directly from the people who have experienced directly… it was terrible," Elezi told BIRN.

"The work that they did during the day would lead them to their deaths because it was very difficult. The work in the copper and pyrite mines, the process of extracting the pyrite was terrible because while they were inside the mines, the pyrite would burn them because it contains acid and they did not have proper working clothes," she added.

Gezim Cela, a former prisoner at Spac, attended the opening of the exhibition on Sunday.

Photo: BIRN.

Cela was arrested in 1957 and sentenced by the Tirana Military Court to 12 years in prison, confiscation of property and deprivation of the right to vote for five years for "treason to the homeland".

He was pardoned in 1964 but arrested again in 1971, sentenced to eight years in prison for "agitation and propaganda" and sent to do forced labour at Spac.

"They woke us up in the morning. Then we went to the refectory, and they would give us a kind of soup. After that we would prepare for work, wearing 'work clothes', a pair of boots and a jacket, then we would go to work. We were working as miners during the day," Cela...

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