Olson Lamaj’s work investigates social and political issues related both to contemporary life in Albania and to more universal and timeless systems of meaning extending beyond immediate conditions. Working primarily in photography, video, and installation, Lamaj seeks to construct metaphorical links between the minutiae of sociopolitical experience in Albania’s postsocialist neoliberal context and scales of existence that extend beyond direct human experience, reaching into the metaphysical. His artworks function as a collective mythography of the present, laying the groundwork for the projection and creation of new myths. In 2012 Lamaj co-founded MIZA Gallery, an artist-run-space in the heart of Tirana that functions as an exhibiting vitrine for Albanian young artists to host and develop artistic projects and lectures in order to spark and increase the debate around the Albanian contemporary art scene.