Cao Fei (1978) is one of the most successful young Chinese artists of today. Her work manages to translate the ideas of a new generation. It is critical, political and idealistic but never aggressive or confrontational. In dialogue with Ingrid Commandeur, she thoughtfully describes the dreams and dilemmas of present day China.

Quality encounters: this is how we could describe the art of Dora García (1965). In an intriguing manner, she connects relational aesthetics with an institutional critique of art and society. Her work has a militant, feminist undertone, but happily not at the expense of subtlety or uncertainty.

In the 1980s Rosmarie Trockel (1952) was viewed as an outspoken feminist whose work seemingly demonstrated her disdain for the macho art world of that time. It has become clear since then that Trockel’s work is anything but evidently political or obviously feminist. Trockels’s work may be qualified as emancipatory, but in philosophical rather than political terms.

The Tirana Biennial has so far made little news, despite its turbulent history. Ann Demeester, a curator for the second exhibition, writes about the unsavoury methods used by Flash Art to make money at the expense of the fledgling biennial.

In this reportage we look back at a manifestation which, due to all the publicity for the Istanbul Biennial, has got little attention: The Tirana Biennial. The following is a short interview in which the Albanian artist Edi Muka outlines the chief ideas behind its recently concluded third edition.