Erzen Shkololli
21 May - 27 Jun 2009
ERZEN SHKOLOLLI
"Wreath"
21.05.2009 - 27.06.2009
11-18 h
daadgalerie
Erzen Shkololli is one of the most influential artists from Kosovo. His works deal with the tensions between tradition and identity as well as cultural ideologies and contemporary social structures and daily realities in his homeland. Shkololli approaches his work much like an aesthetic ethnologist who recreates traditional ceremonies. He enables a new reading of these ceremonies by repositioning them in the present and in an art context.
Shkololli uses a variety of different media in his work, including video, photography, sculpture and installation. Often he uses textiles containing figurative motifs with origins that refer to folklore and traditional Albanian social rituals or hearken back to a specific historical context. By transplanting this symbolism into the present and into the sphere of contemporary art, Shkololli initiates a modus for reflection between past and present, tradition and modernity, memory and hope, or freedom and death – all of which he also relates to political and cultural situations in Kosovo now.
For the installation created for the daadgalerie, "Wreath" (2009), Shkololli recalls forms of remembrance. The installation contains a wreath-like object of Albanian embroidery that is traditionally used for burial ceremonies. The embroidery itself is presented inside of a room built within the gallery space, providing an intimate space for contemplation. In a way that might recall a mausoleum or a public monument, the visitor’s attention is directed toward the embroidered object. Shkololli’s installation refers to the difficulty in dealing with personal and 'official' memory and the communication between past and future, even 10 years after the war in Kosovo.
Erzen Shkololli was born in 1976 in Pejë (Peć) in Kosovo. After finishing his education at the Academy for Fine Arts in Priština his works have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries internationally. In Germany, he was a participant in the Manfesta 4 (2002) in Frankfurt am Main and in the 2003 exhibition curated by René Block, "In den Schluchten des Balkan" (In the Gorges of the Balkans) at Fridericianum in Kassel. Beyond this, many works from Shkololli have appeared in exhibitions curated by Harald Szeeman, including "Money and Value the Last Taboo" (2002) in Biel, "Blood and Honey. Future is at Balkan" (2003) in Vienna, and “The Joy of my Dreams" (1st Sevilla Biennial, 2004) in Sevilla. Recently, Shkololli took part in the exhibition "Ritornell. Neun Geschichten" (2008) at the Tasispalais in Inssbruck, curated by Sylvia Eiblmayr.
From 2003 through 2006, Erzen Shkololli was the artistic director at EXIT Galerie in Pejë. Since 2003, he has been a member of the European Cultural Parliament. Erzen Shkololli was a 2008/09 guest of the Berlin Artist programme of the DAAD. He lives and works in Pejë and Berlin.
"Wreath"
21.05.2009 - 27.06.2009
11-18 h
daadgalerie
Erzen Shkololli is one of the most influential artists from Kosovo. His works deal with the tensions between tradition and identity as well as cultural ideologies and contemporary social structures and daily realities in his homeland. Shkololli approaches his work much like an aesthetic ethnologist who recreates traditional ceremonies. He enables a new reading of these ceremonies by repositioning them in the present and in an art context.
Shkololli uses a variety of different media in his work, including video, photography, sculpture and installation. Often he uses textiles containing figurative motifs with origins that refer to folklore and traditional Albanian social rituals or hearken back to a specific historical context. By transplanting this symbolism into the present and into the sphere of contemporary art, Shkololli initiates a modus for reflection between past and present, tradition and modernity, memory and hope, or freedom and death – all of which he also relates to political and cultural situations in Kosovo now.
For the installation created for the daadgalerie, "Wreath" (2009), Shkololli recalls forms of remembrance. The installation contains a wreath-like object of Albanian embroidery that is traditionally used for burial ceremonies. The embroidery itself is presented inside of a room built within the gallery space, providing an intimate space for contemplation. In a way that might recall a mausoleum or a public monument, the visitor’s attention is directed toward the embroidered object. Shkololli’s installation refers to the difficulty in dealing with personal and 'official' memory and the communication between past and future, even 10 years after the war in Kosovo.
Erzen Shkololli was born in 1976 in Pejë (Peć) in Kosovo. After finishing his education at the Academy for Fine Arts in Priština his works have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries internationally. In Germany, he was a participant in the Manfesta 4 (2002) in Frankfurt am Main and in the 2003 exhibition curated by René Block, "In den Schluchten des Balkan" (In the Gorges of the Balkans) at Fridericianum in Kassel. Beyond this, many works from Shkololli have appeared in exhibitions curated by Harald Szeeman, including "Money and Value the Last Taboo" (2002) in Biel, "Blood and Honey. Future is at Balkan" (2003) in Vienna, and “The Joy of my Dreams" (1st Sevilla Biennial, 2004) in Sevilla. Recently, Shkololli took part in the exhibition "Ritornell. Neun Geschichten" (2008) at the Tasispalais in Inssbruck, curated by Sylvia Eiblmayr.
From 2003 through 2006, Erzen Shkololli was the artistic director at EXIT Galerie in Pejë. Since 2003, he has been a member of the European Cultural Parliament. Erzen Shkololli was a 2008/09 guest of the Berlin Artist programme of the DAAD. He lives and works in Pejë and Berlin.