Back to the future
Symposium with Zdenka Badovinac, Mehmet Behluli and Shyqri Nimani.
Moderator: Albert Heta
7 April 2011, 19:00
The symposium Back to the future is part of Back to the Future, a project by Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina.
Since its begging in 2009, Back to the Future was shaped within the exhibition's program as: Petrit Halilaj: Back to the future (17 December 2009 - 6 February 2010), Back to the future: Agim Cavdarbasha (11 March 2010 - 2 April 2010), Back to the future: Nysret Salihamixhiqi (1 June 2010 - 22 June 2010) and Back to the future: Kader Pagarusha (4 Semptember 2010 - 2 October 2010).
The Director's Cut: Rexhep Ferri (5 April 2011 - 30 April 2011) is the last exhibition part of the project Back to the future.
Back to the future, through the presentations of the panelists, Zdenka Badovinac, Director of Moderna galerija / the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana since 1993, Mehmet Behluli, member of the Executive Board of the Kosova Art Gallery and Shyqri Nimani, the director of the Kosova Art Gallery since its creation in 1979 until 1989, among others, will address the following issues:
Zdenka Badovinac: What is a museum of contemporary art? How can it be defined with regard to its time, its space, and its history? I will try to illustrate my answers to these questions by looking at, among other things the works we have been doing at the Moderna Galerija and this institution's upcoming division into museum of contemporary art and a museum of modern art.
Mehmet Behluli: The struggle of the society to be part of a democratic world and to appropriate its artistic and cultural values often without having a critical stand concerning those values, and without even flowing naturally through many stages of a cultural growth, led to the present circumstances culture is facing currently in Kosova.
Shyqri Nimani: There already have passed 32 years since the foundation of the Kosovo Arts Gallery. Its functioning practically started on February 2, 1979, with the first exhibition of its artistic collection as a heritage of the Kosovo Cultural Union, which was collected by a special committee acting for the last two decades. At the opening ceremony, Mr. Pajazit Nushi, the Vice-president of the Executive Council of Kosovo, beside he said: 'I am convinced that by establishing of this institution a lot of the noble intentions of many generations are realized, especially of those of fine arts, who with their works have designed the Gallery of Arts long ago before we made of it a national institution'. The Fine Arts achieved a spiritual activity in Kosovo and they characterize our time, the social evolution, the inside ethics of our humanity in order to be one of the components of the integral development'.
The symposium will be moderated by Albert Heta.
Looking in the past of this project, Back to the future as a project in the international scene also had a 'close encounter' with a larger 'object', Artissima art fair (5 November 2010 - 7 November 2010). The section Back to the future for this event was conceived by a Scientific Committee consisting of three curators of museum collections: Christine Macel, Curator Centre Pompidou, Paris - Jessica Morgan, Curator Contemporary Art, Tate Modern, London - Massimiliano Gioni, Director of Special Projects, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York and Artistic Director Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan. This section was created not only with the same name but also incredible similarities in the project that are more than only interesting to work with in the future.
Back to the future by Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina is a quest to capture time through selected art works and texts and work in contextualizing the time and geography connected with the outstanding works that are in the focus of these exhibitions and an investment in creating a space for future credible reflections on works of generations of artists for the next generation of artists.
Back to the future is supported by Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosova, Directorate for Culture, Youth and Sports of the Municipality of Prishtina, Kosova Foundation for Open Society, Europlakat, Banka Ekonomike, Arda Rei, Dardania Insurance Company, Kosova Art Gallery, KTV, Rrokum and DZG.