"NOmade Biennale" with art brings Latin tragedies to Pristina

The exhibition of "NOmade Biennale" has a kind of tendency of healing or recognition between countries. Especially when many of the works, the organized event itself has its source in Ecuador. Diversity can be defined as massive when considering culture between countries, but the phenomena seem global. The contrast of the society is small in relation to the country, as well as to the artistic concepts. With works of art, the exhibition transcends borders and ethnic differences

"Subversive Parallels" is an art world of its own. Memories, history, protest and revolt against violence echo in two art spaces. The exhibition of "NOmade Biennale" has a kind of tendency of healing or recognition between countries. Especially when many of the works, the organized event itself has its source in Ecuador. Diversity can be defined as massive when considering culture between countries, but the phenomena seem global. The contrast of the society is small in relation to the country, as well as to the artistic concepts. With works of art, the exhibition transcends borders and ethnic differences.

The exhibition in Pristina sounds contradictory from the title. Initially, when alongside the meaning of parallels, there is subversion, which is defined as a value that is contradicted or even overturned. Then when the phenomena of distant places are contradicted by art. Those witnessed through art make the universe seem close.

For the ninth edition of "NOmade Biennale" from Ecuador, Pristina was the place of presentation of Latin art and not only. The traces of art are not only on the materials, but also on the walls of the Gallery of the Faculty of Arts. At the entrance to the building, a textile work catches the eye first. "Origin of Fear" by the artist from Chile, Gabriela Carmona Slier. The naked body of the woman with her head covered portrays the concept of violence and prejudice.

Very aesthetic, but also with inner messages is the work "Mourning - Morning" by the Colombian Victor Muñoz. If the materials used are taken as a basis, the papers dipped in coffee, it brings to mind a morning of mourning when the dedication of the work is taken into account. The author announces that the work is a tribute to the social leaders who are killed every year in Colombia, as a result of violent conflicts. The coffee that colors the names of the 160 killed comes as a symbol of keeping alive the memory of them.

The three works are named "Eine Familienchronik" and come in approximate forms and views. It looks like a chronicle that starts with the first one and continues on the surfaces of the next two. The background, which is dominated by the color blue, barely highlights the landscape of the sea and the mountains. The contrast comes from a painting within each that seems to convey a dark story of the past. With them, the Chilean-German artist presents the phenomenon of migration, which she considers to be recognized in society as a kind of internal enemy. Her story is artistically presented within those works.

"Around 1850 and before the First World War, the state of Chile itself appealed to the German people who could imagine the chance of a new life on the other side of the world, offering them territories and resources to colonize uninhabited lands. In the fabric, I somehow reconstruct the immigration journey of my great-grandparents from Hamburg, Germany to the south of Chile", the artist wrote about the work.

Among foreign contemporary art, Albanian art also has a place. The shadows that create interference deviations in wet bricks are the first to be noticed. They are similar in evidence of the remaining marks and the impossibility of changing them. The sculpture of the artist Guri Çavdarbasha leaves the viewer free to perceive the work that is part of the cycle of his works "Portrait block".

"One of this cycle has been selected for the exhibition 'Subversive Parallels' which is held in the Gallery of the Faculty of Arts. As a process, it took about a month, because the terracotta material itself has its own processes, in addition to materialization, intervention in blocks, in ready-made materials, drying, baking, then, the connection between the parts, it took about a month as an installation" , said Çavdarbasha, artist and sculpture lecturer at the University of Pristina.

He said that the installation part is meant to be simple and abstract. The process of making the work was developed in several steps.

"I really liked terracotta as a material. I tried that apart from the ready-made materials, I also experimented a little and I was impressed with how the final process will be. Here it can be seen that some random things happened during baking. I generally use terracotta as a material, the soil, the firing impresses me, the final part is then also seen in the coloring part", explained Çavdarbasha.

Hatixe Ibrahim's "Black Book" comes as an installation of conveying the lines of the narrative through the material in which it is expressed. A browser diary allows exploration through the artist's memories and past. "The Had" by Monika Dukaj are the heads of three people, which are presented in different characters and are precisely what distinguish them.

Equality is the message of the work "We are equal" by Olmedo Alvarado from Ecuador. The work made in 1981, covered with a plastic layer, represents a police vehicle parading in front of the crowd. An old photograph in which the artist equates the size of the vehicle to the human by means of a surface drawing of the human in red.

"Memories of the Stadium" by Chilean artists Denise Viera Diaz and Constanza Bravo Granadino presents both documented and real stories. However, the three fabrics where the stones as an object present are very artistic and aesthetic, stand in front of them like three mirrors for the three grains with a completely different appearance.

A giant installation looks like an abstract grid or even a crap like tree branches, but very aesthetic in appearance. The black textile material contrasts very well with the white walls of the gallery. Inside they have secret messages that speak directly. Through them are placed scan codes as accurate messages to the public and live facts.

One click is enough to tell the whole story. News and video opens and announces the murder of 18 people, mostly young people. The youngest was 16 years old. The mass call for early presidential elections on January 9 last year was the reason why the people rose up in protests. The police had used brutal violence, injuries that had led to the death of the protesters, including a police officer. The whole story can be found in the work "The enemy is within shoot against us (To overthrow the power)" by the Spaniard Avelino Sala.

The organizer of "NOmade Biennale", professor Ismet Jonuzi, said that the exhibition does not have a political character, but that the very appearance of the artists means that the political barriers of countries have been broken through art.

"Their goal has been to create connecting bridges and all offer in a single concept the cultural diversities between different peoples, despite the fact that in some countries the policy influences not to accept us. I think that art knows no borders and with this concept they have broken even their state barriers. This can also be an appeal for their countries", said Jonuzi while showing that at the opening of the event on October 12, there were also two performances by the artist from Chile, Paula Conoepan.

According to him, this collaboration with artists from countries that have not known Kosovo helps the country's diplomacy. But that most of the artists for this reason have not been able to travel to Kosovo due to the lack of support from their countries.

"Unfortunately, Ecuador and Chile have not recognized Kosovo and unfortunately most of the artists have not been able to travel, because their country has not financed them and this has been a very big cost for them, so they have sent a representative of theirs . Previously, in September we had an edition in Poland where I was also a participant", said Jonuzi, who was also assistant curator of the exhibition. The whole idea of ​​holding an edition in Pristina started when Jonuzi, with his works shaped by the weapons of the KLA, destroyed after the war by NATO, participated there last December.

According to the artist and art professor, Latin artists talk about social problems and confronting political problems. According to him, the acts come as a revolt against violence in their countries. "I think it's an unusual presentation and you can clearly see the cultural diversity, the problems, with elements of Latin American artists that are related to our history, but that they happened in Ecuador", Jonuzi said further while making know that dean Hazir Haziri has promised them that the exhibition will be included in a catalog that would document the event.

The curator of many events in the artistic scene in the country and beyond, Zeni Ballazhi, said that the exhibition weaves several types of contemporary mediums. According to him, they are multimedia works that express powerful ideas and concepts. "The goal of reflecting or presenting our reality through works of art is very important today. It does not mean that we are not faced with presentations of this kind of artwork as it is current in all countries of the world. This kind of equal language is also present in us, starting from the earliest generations", said Ballazhi, also a professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Pristina.

According to him, this event is welcome, as it serves artists and art students. "This inclusion of the interweaving of the visual language is very necessary, at least to create opportunities for connection or collaboration bridges, as we call them, with different international artists and curators. Students who visit this exhibition have a closer encounter with their concepts and ideas that affect current topics in the most contemporary way of their expression. They are necessary to flow in an equal language", said Ballazhi further.

The curator of this year's edition of "NOmade Biennale" was Fernando Hierro from Argentina.

"By bringing together the artistic creations, the exhibition aims to start a dialogue about the diversity of perceptions about the construction of the internal enemy, its continuity and parallels in different contexts and spaces. The doctrine of the internal enemy is a colonial discursive legacy that has legitimized violence, war and genocide, through exclusion based on ethnicity, class, religion, ideology, gender, etc. It is often expressed in unclassified state documents, which recognize the need to identify certain territories and social groups as dance," Hierro wrote in the curatorial text. As a visual artist he has participated in artistic projects and, individually and in groups, in Scandinavia, Central America and Argentina.

"NOmade Biennale", according to the website, is presented as a multiple collective, since the autonomous and independent production generates a series of reflections on the systems and visualizations of current art.