“Fragments I” by Vangjush Vellahu

In our 3rd Weekly Video Programme we present you “Fragments I” by Vangjush Vellahu, an artist of Albanian origin residing in Berlin. A series of six videos made across partially recognised territories. Vangjush’s intimate journey and dialogue with inhabitants of the cities of Varosha, Tskhinvali, Agdam, and places like Kosovo, Abkhazia and Trans’nistria. The raw images point to the difficulty of accessing these places (even more with an Albanian passport) as well as having to be careful as filming in most zones is forbidden. The honest and direct content of the videos creates a rather poetic account of the situation, stripped off politics and focusing on human feeling and narration, landscape as a secret ambience, they are a real testimony of time and place.

In these times we are unable to travel, and we seem to cherish more than before our human nature, we should also reconsider those areas that are put in “forced isolation” just like we are today, but their reason being political, overcoming the human factor and its right to freedom. Just as Vangjush’s films are not biased, neither is our stance towards the political administration and governance of the territories shown, but we do stand firmly behind their right of movement.

This brings us to the example of Palestine. In certain places completely cut off from the rest of the world, its inhabitants being unable to move out, nor people being able to come in. Fragments II by Vangjush Vellahu is on its way. The first video of the series “A day trip to Hebron”, a two channel video installation (estimated to be out in the next two months) that deals with the occupation of Palestine but through the perspective of the camera usage in the city of Hebron, taking Hebron as a micro example for explaining the large effect in the rest of the West Bank. Camera as being a (peaceful or at times dangerous) tool of documenting and reflecting the reality or as a tool that could and is preventing certain military actions from happening. More to come soon, in the meantime we invite you to view Fragments I and download the catalogue of the exhibition we had in Hestia, with a great text by curator Maja Ćirić. For further reading you can also order the book “Where stories cut across the land” published by Archive books.

• Vangjush Vellahu, Abkhazia After, 2015 – 2016, 13 min 44 sec, Video, color, sound, aspect ratio 16:9
• Vangjush Vellahu, Varosha, a silent town, 2016, 12 min 05 sec, Video, color, sound, aspect ratio 16:9
• Vangjush Vellahu, Agdam, 2016, 10 min 40 sec, Video, color, sound, aspect ratio 16:9
• Vangjush Vellahu, Trans’nistria, 2016 – 2017, 11 min 50 sec, Video, color, sound, aspect ratio 16:9
• Vangjush Vellahu, At the edge of Tskhinvali, 2017, 12 min 20 sec, Video, color, sound, aspect ratio 16:9
• Vangjush Vellahu, Field of Blackbirds, 2017, 17 min 05 sec, Video, color, sound, aspect ratio 16:9