ZETA Contemporary Art Center

Valentina Koca launched ZETA, the Centre for Contemporary Art, as a non-profit exhibition venue in 2007. ZETA operates as an independent cultural site for multidisciplinary approaches to visual arts, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, sounds, and performance, with an area of 150 square meters on the second floor of a residential and commercial building on Abdyl Kumanovo Road in central Tirana.

ZETA has made significant contributions to the vitality and dynamics of Albania’s contemporary art scene over the past twelve years, beginning with “Drawings of Pasprekuna” (2007), an exhibition of previously unseen works by Eddie Hila created between 1970 and 1989, to “A Title for a Creativity” (2008) – a collection of communist-era posters designed by Franc Ashiku – in “Unstoppable Tempo” (2008), an exhibition of Ali Oseku’s abstract (2009). Furthermore, ZETA has actively promoted the development of new creative practices by offering institutional support to a new generation of Albanian and international artists.

In addition to exhibits, ZETA provides education programs, seminars, and other activities that address current social and cultural concerns through the lens of visual art. ZETA has developed partnerships with local, regional, and international institutions such as T.I.C.A – Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art; Tirana University of Arts; The Art Gallery of Kumanovo; and Residence Unlimited, New York, to act as a link of collaborative practices among artists and curators, critics, scholars, and other art professionals. ZETA has worked as co-organizer of the Coming Prize for Contemporary Visual Albanian Artists Under the Age of 35 via YVAA – The Network of Awards for Young Visual Artists. ZETA has organized and administered the Coming Prize since 2018.