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May 5, 2012

Flaka Haliti | Featured Artist

Flaka Haliti | Artist from Kosovo

Flaka Haliti was born in 1982 in Prishtina. She graduated in 2005 on the “Faculty of Arts” at the University of Prishtina. In 2007/08 she worked as a guest teacher on “esthetics of space” at the Department of Architecture at the University of Prishtina. Currently she is a student at the Städelschule in Frankfurt/Main.


Balls!Balls!Balls!, Stacion Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina 2008
Exhibitions & Projects:

2011 SUPERMARKET - the international artist-run Sweden art fair, Stockholm, presented by Stacion Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina
2011 »The Educational Art Show Part II (städelschule)« Malmøgata Fine Arts Project Space, Oslo
2010 SPAPORT BIENNIAL - »Where Everything Is Yet to Happen« -curated by Ivana Bago and Antonia Majaca, Banja Luka, Mostar, Sarajevo
2010 »Als ich ein Kind war, wollte ich Künstlerin werden« - collaborative project by Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina and press to exit project space Skopje
2010 »CRW - Contemporary War Reflection« - curated by Malene Dam and Julie Galsbo,• BKS-Garage Royal Academy Copenhagen
2010 »Flaka Haliti« - son: DA Gallery Ex-Garage Maribor
2010 »FJT Festival«  Offenbach am Main und in Frankfurt am Main
2009 »Heiss Oder Kalt« - curated by Petra Reichensperger, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2009 »Bring me a leaf of grass from the edge of the image« - curator: Fouad Asfour and Saul Judd, Atelier Frankfurt, Frankfurt Main
2009 »Dopust« -performance festival, Split
2008/2009 »BRUSSELS BIENNIAL 1« - The World Around You, project contribution of L‘appartement 22/Hordaland Art Centre/Stacion - Center For Contemporary Art Prishtina, curated by Abdellah Karroum, Anne Szefer Karlsen, Albert Heta, Vala Osmani, Brussels
2008 »Exception« - Curators: Kristian Lukic,Gordana Nikolic, Ivana Marjanovic and Vida Knežević Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Napon Novi Sad, and Kontekst Gallery, Belgrade
2008 »Plazma« - Siemens ArtLab Gallery, Leonhardkultur Project, Vienna
2008 »Balls! Balls! Balls!« - curatorial by Albert Heta, Stacion Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina
2007 NoD galerija, Prag
2007 »Winners/ Losers (part one): Flaka Haliti« - Curatorial by Albert Heta, Stacion Center for Con temporary Art Prishtina
2006 »Prishtina Sounds« -curated by Tobi Maier, National Museum of Kosova, Prishtina
2005 »Academy Remix/Missing Identity« - Curated by Nikola Dietrich, Portikus, Frankfurt Main




Winners/Losers, Our death/Other’s dinner, Stacion Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina 2007 
Flaka Haliti on her work “Our death/Other’s dinner”:
It sounds only like a phrase in our place, but it is much more than that. It is a moment when Albanian families get together again, bringing back the social and traditional solidarity, but unfortunately even this time it is about a tragic moment for someone. For centuries within Albanian families, during the occasion of death and mourning, relatives would bring lunch and the others would bring dinner prepared in their homes to the bereaved house to share the pain.
Now we have a different case: this phrase is transferred into the opposite connotation of what it was used for before. With a totally new dimension, it is used as a title for an art creation with a totally different concept. “Should the victim get victimized for the second time if it is used as a concept for an artistic creation?”- is the question which is going to be raised through this video art. Each time we have visited an exhibition we have seen photos of victims, dead bodies of different ages or sculptures with blood stains on the clothes and remains which symbolized a massacred person, or we have heard a song which was dedicated to a victim who became a hero. How fair is that?! What is the reason that makes an artist to do so? Are there always positive intentions to honor the victim and relatives in order to bring them to a higher position, or without consciousness the artist comes to a point of victimizing the victim for the second time and offends ones relatives by giving them even a commercial dimension?! Now the proverb “Our death, Others’ dinner” is used as a metaphor, which shows that the one who cooks the dinner for misfortune of the other, in this case is the artist.  
As a response to the raised question “Should the victim get victimized for the second time if it is used as a concept for an artistic creation?” I am exploring the social misunderstandings in the discourse of the victims and missing persons of the last war. I based the work on the tension between two “citations”, a video clip of a song from a rock band in Prishtina, “Jericho”, and a debate among the family members of victims the aforementioned song is about. Is it ethical to use the victims as a concept for an art piece, and where is the border for such an abuse in this case and other cases in art work? Considering the fact that the victims are in most cases misused in the context of everyday political life or they serve as a potential alibi for future wars, this video shows a sincere feeling of sadness for the missing.
 At this time Flaka's ongoing project is happening under the umbrella of Architecture & Critical Spatial Practice (ACSP) directed by Prof. Markus Miessen at the Städelschule, Frankfurt - as part of UNESCO granting immunity to immigrant artists.



The work revolves around the discussion concerning "Immunity for the Migrant Artists", a fictional legal status for artists inspired by cross-border artists mobility and is supported by the director of Städelschule, Frankfurt, Prof. Nikolaus Hirsch. 



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