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Some Call Us Balkans

Creative Europe – EACEA

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‘The more I stay, the more territorial I become’, outdoor sound installation-performance, Diona Kusari

'Psychotherapeutic' sessions, whereby the inner conversations are made visible and public, are broadcasted through a moving van (kamionçinë) which goes en route to the center and peripheral parts of Prishtina. In trying to amend the dissonance between the artist's personal truth and society's vestiges of shame and honor bonds - the ego, superego and collective consciousness speak through her.

A slight reappropriation of a familiar scenario in cities all over Kosovo - men going around town driving a van shouting "hekura, hekura" into a speaker attached on top of it, as a way of informing households that they will purchase their unused home devices to collect steel and iron parts. Such sounds are so omnipresent that our bodies have learned this cue. Immediately as one hears this muffled sound one can identify it, just as how we are taught to shut down our bodies and senses to the cacophony in public space.

Photo credits: The more I stay, the more territorial I become - Diona Kusari, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

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vol. III - 'Oda e sirenave', mermaid cabaret, Αle

vol. III - 'Oda e sirenave', mermaid cabaret, Αle Sandra

Alia*, for Ale Sandra is an ephemeral laboratory. It is rooted in the Mediterranean, where it tries to observe matriarchal elements inside a patriarchal structure and combine them according to the different contexts where it appears.

What she calls ‘our research’ is an adventure: ‘by sea, I with my sisters spread all over are trying to sew memories of a mediterranean cult, echoing a lost matriarchal society. Whether real or fictional, this philologic game pursues the elements of a mediterranean, feminine sense of the fluid connection between bodies; a magical tool to evoke and lull the unofficial memories of those inhabiting margins of power.'

Ale enacts a hybrid form of ritual listening and caring for memory: manifesting at times as occasion to share stories, games, meals; at times combining sound, spoken language, movement, organic and inorganic objects and fluids as celebrating the genealogy resewed - empowering us. A sort of feminist Atlantis.

*Alia: It has multiple meanings:
1. ‘Other things’
2. The name my syrian flatmates gave me in Athens. It’s the feminine name for the ether.
3. It is a genus of sea snails.

Photo credits: Oda e sirenave - Αle Sandra, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

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‘W-here is Ballkan?’, video art, Lori Lako Du

‘W-here is Ballkan?’, video art, Lori Lako

Due to lack of proper playgrounds, as kids we would often appropriate public space. The video of Lori Lako stages a usual neighborhood football scene, where the interaction of the subjects with the location can result indifferent at first sight, though we are all conscious of the influence that the environment, our buildings and our ruins have on us in direct or rather indirect ways.

In the depicted scene, the switch is given by the subjects of the game, which in this case are mixed gender. Shifting in this way the dynamics of the game which is often perceived as a hyper-masculine one. Another shift is given by the ball which is not the usual soccer one. There can be seen printed on its surface the Balkan geographical map, within its borders that are subject of continuous ever and ongoing conflicts. While terms like Balkan or Balkanization are most of the time associated with pejorative meanings full of misconceptions. The players, with every kick of the ball, move it away from themselves, as it is always the other to be the Balkan.

Photo credits: W-here is Ballkan? - Lori Lako, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

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‘Goblen (The unpaid labor of woman)’, performa

‘Goblen (The unpaid labor of woman)’, performance-installation, Sezer Salihi

Goblen has often used a housewife’s handwork as their piece of art. Throughout history, it was seen as necessary to suit the wall of the Balkan houses. Today they are moving out from the walls of the houses and are hidden in the basement.
Goblen is used as a metaphor to focus on Balkan women’s housewives whose labor was not seen, not paid and it is not valued by the same Balkan society. The purpose of putting into a part of the wall is to reveal again the piece as a living organism. In Balkan history, the Wall has the meaning of putting borders, especially to the desires, the freedom of the people.

As a way of protesting, Senahat Mustafa Salihi performs the process of the Goblen. This time she will leave the handwork unfinished as a demonstration of revolt and protest against the patriarchy.

Concept:Sezer Salihi
Performer: Senahat Mustafa Salihi

Photo credits: Goblen (The unpaid labor of woman) - Sezer Salihi, Pristina, Kosovo, Some Call Us Balkans, photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

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