Il complotto di Tirana

December 2000. The famous photographer Oliviero Toscani accepts an invitation from the art critic Giancarlo Politi to curate a section of the first edition of the Tirana Biennial. The photographer presents four scandalous artists, authors of works that are uncomfortable, inappropriate, even immoral: Dimitri Bioy, a paedophile; Marcello Gavotta, a pornographer; Bola Equa, an activist wanted by the Nigerian government; and Hamid Picardo, Bin Laden’s official photographer. This is just the beginning of what will go down as one of the biggest hoaxes in contemporary art history. Now that the statute of limitations has expired, the protagonists can finally tell the truth.