Alketa Ramaj: No Title
Curatorial by Albert Heta

21 February 2014 – 22 March 2014
Opening: 21 February 2014 at 20:00

Artist talk: 22 February 2014 at 19:00


Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina presents the first solo exhibition of Alketa Ramaj in Kosovo.

Alketa Ramaj was born in 1983 Përmet, Albania. Currently she lives and works in Tirana and Venice. She is the winner of the Onufri Award (2012) and Ardhje Award (2013).

In her work, the initial sentiment is what gives direction to the creation of the first phase of the work leading to the continuous quest for it’s end. This feeling is closely attached as an invisible and internal part of the creative work, however the final product (the object) belongs to an external reality.

No title at Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina appears in the functional architecture designed for another piece that was exhibited as part of the program of Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina. The decision to show this work in this functional structure, powerful but foreign to it, has to do with the physical space where this architecture can function, with the new process initiated by this work, but also the social context and the time when this work is shown. This context is not a foreign to this work.

The work can be seen as a reference of the relationship between a couple as a cycle of what may seem monotony, but in reality is an internal conflict of insecurity and silent domination.

In this context, this reading stimulates thinking about the ‘natural’ acceptance’of the silent domination (or the loud), within and outside traditional man- woman couples and keeping conflict as internal being the modus operandi of our entire society. We don’t only lock our rights and the rights of others, but also our ambitions and dreams, pressured by social norms which are not created to become laws, but are constantly uploaded and recycled by ‘parallel’ societies for daily needs of domination. Shshsh! The boy is sleeping.

The boy sleeps in a context dominated by the disappearance of public institutions which in any context should produce space for the progress of a contemporary society, whose steps to progress cannot be halted by stories of the past, a private interest or a certain belief.

The exhibition No title with Alketa Ramaj at Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina is a prelude of the New Project, a collaboration project between Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina and Tirana Institute for Contemporary Art – TICA. This project is based on the strategic goal of Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina and TICA to create working space for artists, socio-political workers and independent institutions that in any reality and society are indicators of social development and often are also the only connection with the existing social and political reality.

No title with Alketa Ramaj at Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina is placed to function in the architecture of the exhibition 3-2-1… Long Sorrow with Anri Sala curated by Edi Muka.

No title with Alketa Ramaj at Stacion – Ceneter for Contemporary Art Prishtina is part of the annual program of Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, and is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport of the Republic of Kosovo, Ministry of the European Integration of the Republic of Kosovo, X-print and DZG.