Non-Virtual-Social-Network [2022 – ]
Non-Virtual-Social-Network traces events and relics of former third places in the Kurrizi [Albanian for spine] complex in Prishtina. Built in the 1980s in the former outlying district of Dardania, the prefabricated building structure offered new free spaces for the youth of the time and later became a cultural centre for the Albanian community. With its cafés, pubs, clubs and restaurants, built as part of an arcade next to a car tunnel, it proved to be an existential meeting place when the Serbian regime began to oust Albanians from public life. This place was one of the last loopholes where concerts and exhibitions took place and a diverse subculture existed. From 1993 onwards, the situation worsened rapidly, with more violent raids and arrests. Once progressive living conditions were negated and many residents emigrated. Kurrizi deteriorated visibly and is still in a dilapidated state today. The lecture performance, supported by photographs, took place as part of the Erich Buchholz Retrospective at Kunsthaus Dahlem, in which the 1920s studio of the artist, who was marked by the adversities of the time, was recreated as a 1:1 model. The performance was part of a series of discursive-performative interventions that negotiated diverse conceptions of studio, corresponding artistic and social practices and consequently, notions of art and its forms of authorship. It asks in general about the preconditions for artistic creation and what a creative space can be, but also about its meaning under the conditions of political repression and its remaining as a collective reference for socio-cultural development and freedom.
>> Further research and collaborations in Prishtina are planned for 2024 and 2025.
Lecture Performance with Printed Foam Boards and Photographs. Dimensions variable