News

The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin
Doruntina Kastrati
Curated by Erëmirë Krasniqi
April 18th – November 24th 2024

Pavilion of the Republic of Kosovo 
Museo Storico Navale della Marina Militare
Riva S. Biasio, 2148,30122 Venezia VE, Italy

Image: Majlinda Hoxha, 2023. Research documentation. Courtesy of the artist.

Aligned with the theme of the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, which focuses on foreignness as residing in the self and as a condition created as a result of inequality, exclusion, and global crises, the Kosovo Pavilion addresses the issue of feminized labor in the context of unregulated economies. Doruntina Kastrati’s sculptural installation channels and interprets women’s experi­ences of estrangement while working at a Turkish delight factory in Prizren, Kosovo, and, by extension, discusses their position as members of a society that still shapes its national, historical, and cultural narratives through a patriarchal lens.

In the words of the artist, Doruntina Kastrati:

“In this year’s Kosovo Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, I am presenting a sculptural installation curated by Erëmirë Krasniqi. Together, we focus on feminized labor, the physical toll of work, and workplace inequalities, bringing forward the narratives of women on the margins of society. This project is rooted in the experiences of women who worked at a Turkish delight factory in Prizren, Kosovo—my hometown. The installation comprises four sculptural pieces: two modeled after walnut shells used in Turkish delight production and two modeled after surgical implant prostheses, reflecting the surgeries many of these women underwent due to the long hours working on their feet. These sculptures emit a sound designed to activate them, and are crafted from aluminum to evoke both surgical implants and the industrial setting of the factory, channeling the factory’s coldness as well as the coldness of the foreign metal against the workers’ skin. The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skinrepresents the estrangement experienced by workingclass women, weaving together associations, references, and stories we deem crucial to highlight, both within Kosovo and on the world stage.”

In the words of the curator, Erëmirë Krasniqi:

“This year, the Kosovo Pavilion focuses not on the 1999 Kosovo War, but its after­math. The realities faced by women in unregulated economies, whose sole social and economic capital is the labor they provide, have been a point of departure for the artist and central to the research that informs the curatorial work. As a curator, developing a project that sheds light on narratives from the periphery and engages them from a criticallyinformed standpoint is not only significant, but also marks a thematic shift. Placing these issues within a broader global context is of great importance, as they open up conversations that extend beyond the local.”

About the artist:

Doruntina Kastrati is a visual artist based in Pristina, Kosovo. Her artistic practice spans across sculpture, installation, and moving images. In 2014, she was awarded the Young Visual Artist Award from the National Gallery of Kosovo, and she won the Hajde x 6 Award from the Hajde! Foundation in 2017. She has been in resi­dence at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York (2015), Art House in Shkodër (2018), and Initiators in Athens (2018). Recent solo exhibitions include: A picture of pistachios destroying the railroad tracks to cut off the path of delights at Eugster in Belgrade (2023) and Here (Air Carries Poison But Yet We Breathe)at ChertLüdde in Berlin (2021). Selected group exhibitions include But you, yourself, with your own hand must open this door at Westfälischer Kunstverein, The Grand Scheme of Thingsat Manifesta 14 Prishtina (2022), Informatorat the Hessel Museum of Art (2022); Life, Without Buildingsat ETH Zürich, (2022), What if a Journeyat the Autostrada Biennale (2021), Bigger than Myself – Heroic voices from ex-Yugoslaviaat the MAXXI Museum (2021), Not Fully Human, Not Human at Allat Kadist Foundation and Kunstverein Hamburg (20212022), Tirana Patienceat the National Gallery of Arts in Albania (2020), and Public Heroes and Secretsat The National Museum of Kosovo (2020).

About the curator:

Erëmirë Krasniqi is an art writer, curator, and researcher based in Pristina, Kosovo. Krasniqi received her M.A. from Dartmouth College and B.A. from Bard College Berlin. As an independent curator, she has led and curated projects for the National Gallery of Kosovo, National Gallery of Arts in Albania, and 39th EVA International. Her curatorial and research practice engages with archives, oral history, and critical fabulation to account and redress absences in the historical record. Her research interests range from histories of socialist modernist art to grassroots expressions that challenge dominant his­torical narratives. From 2017 to 2024, Krasniqi was the executive director of Oral History Initiative, a digital resource which engages new forms of cultural production, supporting and advocating the essential work of media archives.

About Kosovo in the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia:

The Republic of Kosovo has participated in the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia since 2013. Past pavilions featured solo presentations by Petrit Halilaj (2013), Flaka Haliti (2015), Sislej Xhafa (2017), Alban Muja (2019), and Jakup Ferri (2022). Their presentations addressed identity politics, the 1999 Kosovo War, missing persons in Kosovo, and the way these experiences have been mediatized. The works that have previously been showcased in the Kosovo Pavilion resonate with one another and continue to influence the formation of collective narratives. Building on this precedent, Doruntina Kastrati’s sculptural installation encounters the estrangement of workingclass women through inquiries into counterhistories, firstperson narratives, and corporeal experiences.

Commissioned by Hana Halilaj, National Gallery of Kosovo.
Organized by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.

Index