Making out on the Battlefield
November 2nd – December 21st
Much more than a mere cinematographic idea, Fragments I is a series of video documents detailing a journey through non-holistic socio-political pulsars: The Republic of Abkhazia, a state of limited recognition; Varosha, a silent town in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey; through the Field of Blackbirds(1) in Kosovo, a state of limited recognition; at the edge of the Tskhinvali region of the Republic of South Ossetia, a partially recognized state; in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic or the Republic of Artsakh, a state unrecognized by any sovereign state; and in Transnistria, or the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, a self-proclaimed, non-recognized, autonomous territorial unit with a special legal status.
Contrasts and “conflicts that make visible emergent spaces of citizenship”(2) represent the obscurity of the Capitalocene in a different fashion. Much more than capitalist slaves, citizens of unrecognized states are victims of conflicts. But which is the lesser of two evils here? Of course, the fight for survival is much more difficult than the fight against instrumentalization, although these are not necessarily mutually exclusive battles. But let’s not get into that yet.
At the exhibition we’ve also organized a book launch of Vangjush Vellahu’s book “Fragments I – Where stories cut across the land”.
Concept & Design: Vangjush Vellahu
Editors: Jasmina Metwaly, Joerg Franzbecker
Texts: Maja Ćirić, Vangjush Vellahu, Jasmina Metwaly, Joerg Franzbecker
Supported by: Arthur Boskamp Stiftung, Hohenlockstedt, Germany, Hestia Art Residency & Exhibitions Bureau, Serbia
Published by: Archive Books, Berlin, Germany
Softcover, 138 pages
ISBN 978-3-943620-98-6
November 2nd – December 21st
June 5th – October 6th 2024
February 28th 2024 – May 12th 2024