[syndicate] Fwd: opening: Kosovo Indefinite Rituals, 24. September

[beate zurwehme]

Leonhardi Culture Projects: „Indefinite Rituals“

 

 

25 September – 29 October 2006

Opening: 24 September, 14.00

Live debate with Sislej Xhafa from 16.00

Press preview: 22 September 2006, 11.00

 

1. A short description of Leonhardi Culture Projects

 

Leonhardi Culture Projects organizes exhibitions which provide the 
public with insights into current positions being taken by artists from 
crisis regions, and tries by means of cultural exchange to stimulate 
democratization processes in countries such as Afghanistan, Kosovo, and 
Iran. We want to contribute to an improved understanding of these 
societies rather than just to look at them from the perspective of 
conflicts and crises. For this reason, we speak of countries like 
Afghanistan and Kosovo as “wounded societies”. The exhibitions also 
give vistors an opportunity to familiarize themselves with positions 
currently being taken in contemporary art. In the two selected cases of 
Afghanistan and Kosovo, these are as different as they could possibly 
be.

 

 

2. The exhibition project “Indefinite Rituals”

 

 

Indefinite rituals are visible through a neo-Oriental style and 
neo-Ottomanism in the public sphere, and in new facades built by 
individuals.

These rituals are recognized by artists when people are praying at a 
library. This library stands opposite an Orthodox church which was 
built by Milosevic during the occupation. Albanian artists such as 
Florian Agalliu are addressing these issues in their work. In his video 
work “Rituals”, Agalliu depicts a neo-Ottoman reaction: men gathering 
to pray at the library in Pristina, opposite the Orthodox church whose 
construction was ordered by Milosevic but never completed. It stands 
next to the Faculty of Arts, a concrete monument which not only 
destroys the unity of the area but also makes it impossible to build on 
the rest of this otherwise unbuilt-on area of the city centre.

 From 24 September to 29 October 2006, Leonhardi Culture Projects will 
be presenting, under the title “Indefinite Rituals”, works by Florian 
Agalliu, Alban Muja, Driton Hajredini, Ilirios, Zake Prelvukaj, Adrian 
Williams, and Sislej Xhafa (Live debate).

 

These young artists have been profoundly affected by the experience of 
being driven out and forced to flee their homes. They deal with this 
experience in their works. One example of this is Alban Muja, who has 
drawn up a plan for a Museum for Contemporary History in his divided 
hometown because he is no longer allowed to visit the place where he 
lived as a child. Driton Hajredini lives in Germany, but he paints 
blackbirds on suitcases because Kosovo means “field of blackbirds”. His 
picture “The guardians” makes this clear in a striking way with its 
depiction of two birds sitting on a suitcase, ready to depart. Adrian 
Williams has set up a Contemporary Arts Library in Prishtina together 
with Shannon Bool, and has now developed a collection of photographs in 
order to promote this project. Zake Prelvukaj is not only an artist who 
portrays the ambivalent attitude to democracy in Kosovo in her pictures 
and through her own body; she also teaches in the Faculty of Arts in 
Pristina, and will present recent works by her students.

 

The indeterminacy of this toponym – Kosovo, “belonging to the 
blackbirds (and was it not the defeated Serbs who left the notorious 
battlefield as blackbirds?) – determines the ability of the 
Kosovo-Albanian art and culture scene to express itself.

 

Indeterminacy can be seen in the works of these artists, just as the 
status of Kosovo is indeterminate. This absence of statehood affects 
forms of cultural expression in Kosovo, and is captured in a precise 
way in the artworks.

 

During the opening of the exhibition on 24 September, Sislej Xhafa will 
lead a live debate with the artists exhibiting their works. This debate 
will start with a radioshow on the 8 September on Radio x in Frankfurt. 
Beqe Cufaj will give an introductory lecture on his most recent visit 
to Prishtina, entitled “What does it mean to live two doors down from 
the president?” Cufaj’s work has become known to a German audience 
through his books Kosova Rückkehr and Der Glanz der Fremde. Adrian 
Williams will introduce the work of the Contemporary Arts Library.

 

 

 
Leonhardi Kulturprojekte
Burgraefenroderstr. 2
Ausstellungsraum im Burghof
61184 Karben
 
0176/62006867
www.fehe.org
www.leonhardikulturprojekte.org
Felicia Herrschaft
redaktion universal
0176/62006867
www.fehe.org
www.leonhardikulturprojekte.org



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