Artists of Tomorrow Awards 2022
Mimoza Sahiti, Valdrin Thaqi, Agrina Vllasaliu

Curatorial work: Albert Heta and Vala Osmani
The architecture of the exhibition: Vala Osmani

09/11/2022 - 10/12/2022

Opening: 09/11/2022, 19:00
Announcement of the winner: 03/12/2022, 19:00
Exhibition closing: 10/12/2022

Opening hours:
Thursday: 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Saturday: 3:00 - 5:00 pm

Venue: Boxing Club, Mark Isaku 8,10000 Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo

Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina is pleased to announce the exhibition of the finalists of the Artists of Tomorrow Award 2022.

The Artists of Tomorrow Award is a unique project which provides young visual artists under the age of 35 the opportunity to produce new artwork, be part of a tailored education process, have meetings and presentations for an international jury of highly acclaimed professionals, have a joint exhibition with the finalists, curated by the curatorial team of Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, and become part of an artist in residency program in United States to experience New York’s dynamic art scene for a two month residency at Residency Unlimited. Upon their return from the US, they will become part of the annual program of Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina with a solo exhibition that will be hosted at The Boxing Club in Prishtina.

The Artists of Tomorrow Award is part of the Young Visual Artists Awards program - a network of ten similar awards organized throughout Central and Eastern Europe with the intention of supporting the emergence and development of contemporary art and civil society.

The jury of the Artists of Tomorrow Award 2021, comprised of Anne Barlow, the director of the TATE St Ives, Miljana Dunđerin, artist, director of the private Cultural Center "Akvarijus", Laura Raicovich, writer, curator, Bernhard Rüdiger, artist, professor at École Nationale des Beaux Arts in Lyon, Driton Selmani artist, has selected three finalists to the Artists of Tomorrow Award 2022 Mimoza Sahiti, Valdrin Thaqi, Agrina Vllasaliu.

Mimoza Sahiti was born and raised in Offenbach, Germany. She did study Economics until 2018 and started her studies in painting at the academy of fine arts in vienna since October 2022. During her first studies in Economics she started painting with aryl and since a year she is painting with oil in an untraditional experimental and somewhat improvised way. During her stay in Kosovo from 2020 - 2022 she exhibited in several spaces in Pristhina, Gjilan and participated at Manifesta 14, in the contemporary art museum of Sofia, Bulgaria and is now also part of the collection in the National Gallery of Prishtina.

Mimoza Sahiti’s was shortlisted for the Artist of Tomorrow Award 2022 for her raw and vibrant works that challenge traditional conventions in painting. Transmitting a certain rage through the very surface of the paint itself, her work reflects a fierce feminism that underpins her approach to capitalism, identity, personal and collective trauma. In her depictions of the human figure, a sense of fear and vulnerability reflects her concerns around the status of women in society, and the precarious nature of human existence overall.

Valdrin Thaqi was born in 1994, in Skenderaj. Graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Pristina, in 2019, branch of painting. His artistic practice includes painting, sculpture and conceptual art. Thaqi made a great contribution to the Kosovar art scene during the last 5 years. He was the winner of two prestigious awards: the first prize in the Muslim Mulliqi Biennale (2018) and the first prize Young Artists (2019). At the end of 2020, he moved to Berlin, where he still lives and works between Berlin and Prishtina.

Selected exhibitions: Pleasures, Basement Art Space, Tirana (2022)/ Manifesta 14 (2022)/ Internal, Hapesira Room 5 - Open Studio (2022)/ Based on true events, National Art Gallery, Pristina (2021)/ Tongue follows the toothache, Green Hill Gallery, Berlin (2021)/ Nothing Like Home, LambdaLambdaLambda Gallery, Pristina (2021)/ Weserhalle Gallery, Berlin (2021)/ GlogauAir Residence, Berlin (2020)/ Young Artists Award, National Gallery of Art Pristina (2019)/ Gjon Mili Biennial, Images between facts and fiction, National Gallery of Arts, Pristina (2019)/ Muslim Mulliqi Biennial, National Gallery of Arts, Pristina (2018)/ It's been a while since I saw a cloud in the sky, Galeria Motrat, Prishtine (2018)/ Pristine Blind date, Termokiss, Prishtine (2018)/ Therapy (2017), External (2018), On Sale (2022) Public interventions with the HAP group.

Spanning painting, sculpture, installation and interventions of various kinds, the work of Valdrin Thaqi is inspired by philosophy and existentialism, and what the artist views as the absurdities that stem from processes, states and events in daily life. His current work focuses on the human impact on the environment, the fusing of natural and artificial intelligences, and the moral and ethical dilemmas that arise in relation to genetic modification.

Agrina Vllasaliu was born on August 8, 1990 in Prishtina but grew up in Berlin, Germany since she was two years old. Between 91' and 92' her parents decided to leave Kosovo for some time due to the critical situation. When the situation in Kosovo became worse and war broke out in 1998, it quickly became clear that returning was not an option for that time. Despite the experience of the war from afar, Agrina’s parents were influenced by this event. In her early childhood, she experienced the powerlessness of her parents in the face of the war and how this circumstance took place parallel to their everyday life in Germany. Her life in Germany was strongly influenced by growing up between the Albanian and German cultures. In her elementary school age, Vllasaliu attended the German school and once a week also the Albanian school in Berlin, which was mostly organized by people who had also fled Kosovo, in order to give the younger generations a connection to the language and the culture. At an early age, it became clear to her that she saw her profession in the creative and artistic field. After graduating from high school in 2010, she worked on her applications to art universities in Germany and began her art studies at the University of the Arts (UDK) in 2011/12 in combination with geography studies at the Humboldt University (HU) in Berlin.

In the UDK, she studied since the third semester in the class of Ursula Neugebauer, where she graduated with a master's degree at the end of April 2022. In Ursula’s class, they studied conceptual strategies of art and the perception of space with mixed media. Together with the students and changing lecturers such as Clemens Krauss (medical doctor and artist), Frederick Foert (artist), Thorsten Goldberg (artist in public space) and Wiebke Hahn (curator), they organized a number of exhibitions and exchanges with other classes. In addition to the regular and annual exhibitions at the end of the semester in the UDK building, they realized joint projects and exhibitions in Berlin, Vienna and Shanghai.

Agrina Vllasaliu considers notions of home and homeland from a diasporic perspective. In her work, the topics of displacement, longing, and memory are explored through references to oral histories and folklore, as well as imagined domestic interiors. A certain humour also pervades some of her works, creating a palpable intimacy with her viewers while at the same time belying a darker anxiety behind the feminist gesture.

The winner will be awarded with a two-month artist residency program in New York, US, at the Residency Unlimited in the period of April/ May 2023, and a solo exhibition within the annual program of Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina for 2024.

The Artists of Tomorrow Award is a pivotal independent award, organized in cooperation with Residency Unlimited in New York, supported by The Trust for Mutual Understanding in New York.

The Artists of Tomorrow Award is part of the Young Visual Artists Awards program - a network of ten similar awards organized throughout Central and Eastern Europe founded in 1989 in Czechoslovakia by President Vaclav Havel and dissident artists with the intention of supporting the emergence and development of contemporary art and civil society.

The intention of President Havel, Wendy W. Luers, the US organizers and founders was to award young artists with a US residency - that is to expose them to the outside world - and to underscore the role of culture in democratization and civil society. They established an open and transparent annual competition judged by an independent and changing jury without the nepotism and favoritism. This founding mission and programmatic framework - to promote contemporary art, recognize and award artistic excellence, foster cultural exchange, and build capacity of local art NGO’s and civil society – is also a guide for Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina to implement The Artists of Tomorrow Award in Kosovo.

In 2015 Residency Unlimited (RU) became the new host of the Young Visual Artists Awards (YVAA) program in the US.

In September 2015, Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina was tasked to assume leadership of the Artist of Tomorrow Award (AOT) in Kosovo starting with the first cycle in 2016 and with building upon and carrying forward the legacy of the Award.

Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina aims to enhance the potential and influence of The Artists of Tomorrow Award in the general developments in contemporary art in the whole territory of Kosovo.

Main supporters of the Artists of Tomorrow Award 2022 are Trust for Mutual Understanding (TMU), Municipality of Prishtina, x-print and DZG. Complete list of donors and cooperation partners for The Artists of Tomorrow Award 2022 will be announced in due time.