"Art detoxifies me", Rama calls the politics he has been leading for 13 years "poison"

Edi Rama appears again in one of the well-known European media, this time not only as the Prime Minister of Albania, but also as an artist. In an interview for the Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS , Rama talks about painting, sculpture, his early years, the transformation of Tirana and the relationship between art and politics.

But beyond the portrait of the prime minister-artist, the interview opens another window, the way Rama wants to present himself and his power to foreigners.

“Art is an attempt to not go completely crazy. Because politics can be crazy. And the risk of going completely stupid is really great when you deal with politics ,” Rama says in the interview.

Rama has been at the head of the government since 2013 and is now in his fourth term. For EL PAÍS, he is both prime minister and artist, while Rama himself insists that he defines himself first and foremost through art.

"The poison of politics"
Rama describes art as a personal mechanism to distance himself from politics. He says that the drawings he makes during meetings and conferences at the Prime Minister's Office are a way to feel good and remove the poison of politics.

"It's a way to detox, to dilute the poison of politics ," he says.

And it is precisely here that one of the paradoxes of the interview appears, since Rama calls politics "poison", while for more than a decade he has been the central figure of Albanian political power.

During this period, Albania has gone from one governing mandate to another, while debates about corruption, control of institutions, construction, concessions, transparency, and the relationship between government and private interests have been an integral part of the public debate.

"Politics should not be mixed with art"
In the interview, Rama also talks about the political debate surrounding the Venice Biennale, but his stance is clear: "Politics should not be mixed with art."

According to him, the jury should judge art and not politics, while the participation or exclusion of countries is a matter for the organizers.

But the EL PAÍS interview itself shows that the division between Rama the artist and Rama the politician is not so simple. He exhibits his art in international galleries, while some of his drawings are made during official meetings at the Prime Minister's office.

So, art is outside of politics when it comes to judging the work, but it is within the prime minister's office when it comes to Rama's own artistic practice.

And Rama himself acknowledges this connection, albeit indirectly.

" Artists can be evil, politicians can be angels"

"It's not true. Artists can be evil and politicians can be angels."

Rama uses this statement to refute the stereotype that the artist is necessarily a good figure, while the politician is a negative figure.

But this very sentence can also be read as a reminder that art should not serve as a filter for judging a politician.

Ultimately, a prime minister should be judged not only on his exhibitions, paintings, or sculptures, but also on how the institutions he leads function.

The international portrait and the Albanian reality
The EL PAÍS interview is not an analysis of Rama's government. It is a portrait of him as an artist, built through his personal history, works, exhibitions and his relationship with art. The Spanish newspaper emphasizes that Rama is the only Albanian prime minister to have won four consecutive terms and places his political career in parallel with his artistic one.

Given this fact, outside of Albania, Rama may appear as the prime minister who paints at his desk, who creates sculptures with the help of artificial intelligence, and who uses art to "detoxify" himself from politics.

Within Albania, he is the politician who has led the country for 13 years and who today faces a strong climate of political dissatisfaction and citizen protests because Albania is not governed by paintings./ S.Gj-Politiko.al