Photography © Atdhe Mulla
“Parallel Voices” is a site-specific artistic intervention, performance and installation
curated by Maksut Vezgishi, within the fourth edition of Metamorphosis, a project implemented by Shtatëmbëdhjetë which aims to bring arts and culture into dialogue in order to discuss the importance of utilizing public space. The memories and interpretations of the post-90’s reality in Kosova are depicted through the writings of three authors (Doruntina Basha, Artrit Bytyçi, and myself). The verbal imagery echoes in a cacophony of overlapping voices through the barren walls of Kino Rinia, which used to be the main cinema in Prishtina, Kosova during the emancipatory initiatives of ex-Yugoslavia that put strong emphasis on building cinemas accross the country- also defined as the process of “cinefication”.
Below is the statement of the curator, Maksut Vezgishi.
“The artistic intervention initiates artistic interactions related to social and political issues, and revives ‘anti-system’ practices as resistance to ‘planetary hegemony’ and ideology as ‘neoliberal capitalism’. ‘Parallel Voices’ in terms of form is defined as ‘autonomous’, without any function other than itself! It is otherwise thought of as a ‘Non-Curatorial Concept’ as a practice of contemporary ‘forms’ functioning in art. The central question that arises is: How to assess the capacity of ‘Artistic Forms’ to function ‘in the echo’ of social protest and politics!?
The cinema and projection space in the ‘Kino Rinia’ building is abandoned, without a specific destination. The ‘deaf’ and ‘dark’ state are the two starting points considering that today this building resembles a “CINEMA MUET” and a “CAMERA OBSCURA”. The awakening of the VOICE and the return of LIGHT to the former object that was a cinema; the spaces of the building in its entirety as the House of Projections in the sense of applying the most contemporary forms of film like the 7th art and of social activism as an artistic form of expression.The experimental form of transmission is intentional. Operators / Announcers through VOICE broadcast the DAILY LIFE of 20 years of democracy. The public is provoked by the ambiguity produced by the technical cacophony, which at the same time evokes opposing feelings of observation, leaving room sometimes for curiosity and sometimes for indifference. In the thematic aspect, it also affects the post 90 ‘situation and the ambiguity of the XXI century.”
Authors of texts:
Artrit Bytyçi
Doruntina Basha
Fjolla Hoxha
Operators:
Cristina Marí
Donikë Ahmeti
AI 1s2 2s2 2p4
For more on Metamorphosis: https://foundation17.org/home/metamorphosis/