Brigita Antoni, Meriton Maloku, Remijon Pronja, Zorica Zafirovska
in discussion with Donjetë Murati at Summer School as School
July 23, 2018, 20:00
Venue: Boxing Club

Summer School as School
July 16 – August 2, 2018

Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina is pleased to announce the presentation by Brigita Antoni, Meriton Maloku, Remijon Pronja, Zorica Zafirovska, part of Summer School as School 2018 Public Program. The panel will be moderated by Donjetë Murati

Brigita Antoni, Meriton Maloku, Remijon Pronja, Zorica Zafirovska are winners and finalists of The Young Visual Artists Award – YVAA program from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro. What this panel will attempt to explore, through the selected presentations of artists and the discussion, are ideas on civil society and relationships with art as a signifying element of the existence of democracy in any free society. The panel acts as a research exercise on the relations with each artists current surroundings, politics in terms of the potential and hindrance in producing works. Additionally, the discussion will also illuminate the surpassing of national borders as an anticipation and expectation upon the art world.

In some ways the discussion aims to purposely recognize, and play with the relations in between macro state processes, and social interaction. In these terms, reflecting and recognizing relations residing on a continuum.

“Artists of Tomorrow Award”, organized in Kosovo by Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, “Ardhje Award” organized in Albania by ZETA Contemporary Art Center, “Dnes Award”, organized in Macedonia by Contemporary Art Center & FRU, and “Milič” in Montenegro by ISU – Institute of Contemporary Art are 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 funders was to award young artists up to 35, 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.

Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina with this panel seeks to additionally intertwine the work of collaborating institutions from the region and the artists, winners and finalists part of YVAA, with Summer School as School and the Initiative PLATFORM A4, initiated by Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina and The Network of Independent Art and Culture Institutions – RRIPAK, which aims to generate new regional strategies, reform public policies and introduce cooperation funding mechanisms for art and culture, influencing social and economic developments in the region, focusing on four countries part of PLATFORM A4.

Brigita Antoni (Montenegro)
Brigita Antoni was born in 1987, in Bar, Montenegro, she completed graduate (2010) and postgraduate studies (2011) in graphic design at the Faculty of Fine Arts Cetinje, receiving the award for freestyle drawing. Since 2013, she has concentrated on digital arts, finding her expression in digital printing, video and GIF art. She has participated in art residencies in Montenegro and abroad, such as in Novi Pazar (2017), Dukley European Art Community in Kotor (2016), Galichnik Art Residency (2015), Don’t Stay Apart, in Venice (2014) an the Magdalena Festival in Maribor (2009). Solo exhibitions (selection): Softness of being, Atelier DADO, Cetinje (2017); Intrigue, Gallery Centre, Podgorica (2015); Sometimes something, Sue Ryder Gallery, Herceg Novi (2012). Group exhibitions (selection):
Perceptions - Why have there been no great (wo)men great artists? NMA, Miodrag Dado Djuric, Cetinje (2018); Milchik Award Finalists, NMA Miodrag Dado Djuric, Cetinje (2017); Past Tense, Dukley European Art Community, Kotor (2016); It’s a beautiful day in Jugooceanija, Dukley European Art Community, Kotor (2016); Art Residency Galichnik, Skopje (2015); Ergo Sum, Center of Contemporary Art Podgorica; The traveller, Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro, Podgorica (2013); The Night of the Museum, Perjanicki dom gallery, Podgorica (2011); Magdalena Festival, Maribor (2010).

Meriton Maloku (Kosovo) lives and works between Antwerp and Prishtina. He studied fine arts in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and has a master degree in printmaking. His research is mainly focused in politics, philosophy and art history itself. Usually he works with repetitiveness, play and a glimpse of humor from time to time.
He works within different disciplines, his main concern always being the space between the viewer and the work. Recent exhibitions include Guanlan Print Biennal Frist selection/ publication, Guanlan, China, 2015; Gjon Mili International Price for Photography, National Gallery of Kosovo, 2015; Split Graphics, Split, Croatia, 2015; KOMASK Bachelor Price, KASKA, Antwerp, 2015; De Sokkel Van Teniers, Performance, KASKA, Antwerp, 2016; Onderbrokenstad, intervention, City hall, Antwerp, 2016; Friday’s death announcer as a contributor to “Friday on your mind” by DDV,Annie Gentils Gallery, Antwerp, 2016 Annihilation Event, Lethaby Gallery, London, 2017; “RAFA”, ASP, Katowice, Poland, 2017; Boogie Woogie Wonderland, De Lange Zaal, Antwerp, 2017; Every day eggs, Performance, KASKA, Antwerp, 2017; RAFA- Printmaking department, Belgrade, 2017; Silk Road Exhibition, Xi’an, China, 2017

Remijon Pronja (Albania). Remijon Pronja’s artwork is about human condition. He has always been drawn toward the way whereby different cultures have struggled to describe the attempts of human beings to become the owners of their existences. His MA in Fine Arts at the University of Milan led him to investigate cultural appropriation adopting a interdisciplinary method.His installations, paintings, and drawings encompass recurring themes taken from human existence and phobias. An interdisciplinary method, homesickness, migration and sense of loss are among the topics Pronja brings to life to shed light on social issues. He is also a co-founder of MIZA Galeri [www.mizagaleri.com], an artist-run space in Tirana devoted (since 2012) to the promotion and support of emerging artists from Albania and abroad. He had three solo exhibitions so far: “Inno alla Gioia”, Galleria Opere Scelte, Torino (2018), “Untitled in Allegro Moderato”, Zeta Gallery, Tirana (2017), and “rex anonymous”, Ku(rz)nthalle Bregenz, Austria (2014). He took part in numerous group exhibitions, among which:: “Exgratia”, Collezione Giuseppe Iannaccone, Milan (2018); “Idromeno Award”, Shkodër (2017); Mediterranea 18 Young Artists Biennale, Tirana (2017); “The Whale That Was a Submarine”, Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2015); “Post Young Albanian Artists”, Fondazione Museo Pino Pascali (2013); Onufri XIX: “Perchance to Dream”, National Art Gallery, Tirana (2012).Remijon is the winner of the 2018 Ardhje Award.

Zorica Zafirovska (Macedonia) was born 1982 in Skopje. She has a bachelor degree in Art, pedagogy, painting, sculpture and classical graphic, at The Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Ss. Cyril and Metodius of Skopje. From 2011 she is a failed Ph.D. Student in cultural studies at The Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities “Euro-Balkan”. Her work as a visual and conceptual artist is constituted of research which concern a wide spectrum of social, scientific development and consumerism. Working in various medias and experimenting with different materials as human hair and blood. By doing site and time specific installation, actions, and using subversive approaches of executing and present her work on socio-political topics. Zafirovka’s, most important research works are on human traffic worldwide and children on the streets in Macedonia specifically on the area of the city of Skopje.
In 2011 she founded Momi initiation of 7 women artists from Skopje. 2009 co-founder of Art I. N.S.T.I.T.U.T. (Innovative, Scientific, Study of the Effort, the Idealism and the Transcendentalism of the Art and Creativity) an artistic group from Skopje. From 2008 member of F.R.I.K. (Cultural Development Association Formation) from Skopje.

Donjetë Murati is an MA graduate in Sociology, The New School, in New York, and is a Researcher and Program Coordinator at Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina. She has worked with various positions on the exhibition program of Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, as well as research projects in Kosovo, by conducting analysis on civil society, arts and culture, gender and clientelism. In attempt to acquire insights on relations on perpetual flux, and recognizing the continua in between state, policy on the one hand, whereas meaning-making and social interaction, on the other. Her research interest lies in spheres where some widely recognized and expected breaks tend to occur as well as recognizing patterns, specifically through arts, gender, and discourse analysis.