SSAS Conference
7 July 2016 at 18:00
Panel 1: Students as Agents of Change and Consumers of Agency
With Lindita Tahiri, Jelena Vesić, Albert Heta, Besa Luci, Yll Rugova
Panel 2: Regional Collaboration and Internationalism
With Dukagjin Pupovci, Felix Gmelin, Branislav Dimitrijević, Besa Luzha, Bujar Hoxha,
Venue:
Boxing Club
Mark Isaku Str. 10000 Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo
SSAS Conference is part of Summer School as School (SSAS), collaboration project initiated in 2015 by Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina.
SSAS is an art and schooling platform, stationed in Prishtina, with collaborating partners in Ljubljana, New York, Belgrade, Vienna, Oslo, Skopje, and Sarajevo.
SSAS is envisioned as a guide and an intervention, designed to unite and disseminate critical knowledge and address relevant challenges of today, with new models and possibilities in art education and art collaboration.
Course leaders, lecturers, and collaborators for SSAS 2016 have compiled a challenging and inspiring program for participants and the public, structured as a hub with seven courses, which combine theory-based classes and production classes, public lectures and presentations, guided tours, exhibitions, and performances, to produce a unique experience and a model.
The SSAS Conference is structured in two panel discussions with keynote speakers and participants foused on Regional Collaboration and Internationalism and Students as Agents of Change and Consumers of Agency.
Speakers in the conference include distinguished professionals, managers, artists, curators, education experts and activists from the region of South East Europe and Central Europe.
Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, and partner institutions, with SSAS aim to create a unique international educational platform, based in Prishtina, as a progressing model; to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum; and to engage practitioners from the region and beyond in sharing knowledge and expertise with international students and the public.
Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina functions as an open platform that employs strategies to build up a dialogue with a differentiated public; works with clear social and political intents, stands for intellectual independence and works to create conditions where contemporary thought and practice can happen.
Stacion is committed to the re-creation of the necessary momentum for the advance and emancipation of the contemporary social and cultural environment of Kosova.
Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina focuses on locally-rooted practice as well as regional, European and international processes.
Bios
Dukagjin Pupovci
Dukagjin Pupovci is Executive Director of the Kosova Education Center (KEC), one the most active Education NGOs in Kosovo and the Region. As an Education Expert he contributed to the development of the most important policy documents in the field of Education and Research in Kosovo, to a large extent through membership in national policy making and advisory bodies. Dukagjin holds PhD in Applied Mathematics and teaches courses from the field of educational planning and research methodologies at the University of Prishtina. He is author of numerous studies and other publications from the field of Education.
Branislav Dimitrijević
Dr Branislav Dimitrijević is Professor of History and Theory of Art at the School for Art and Design and Nova Academia in Belgrade. He also teaches at the Curatorial Practice course at the Belgrade University of Arts (Erasmus Programme). Main field of his historical research is visual art, popular culture and film in socialist Yugoslavia. As a curator he explores “site-specificity” and “physical narrativity” in contemporary art and politics of display. His curatorial projects include:Murder1 (CZKD, Belgrade, 1997), Konverzacija (MOCAB, 2001), Situated Self: Confused, Compassionate, Conflictual (Helsinki City Museum; MOCAB, 2005),Breaking Step – Displacement, Compassion and Humour in recent art from Britain (MOCAB, 2007), FAQ Serbia (ACF, New York, 2010), No Network (D0 Nuclear bunker, Konjic, Bosnia, 2011), etc. In the last twenty years he has written and edited numerous books and catalogues including On Normality: Art in Serbia 1989-2001 (MOCA Belgrade, 2005), Good Life: Physical Narratives and Spatial Imagination (Belgrade Cultural Centre, 2012) and most recently GoranDjordjević - Against Art (MOCA Belgrade, 2014). Since 2014 he regularly writes on political and cultural issues for “Peščanik” web portal (http://pescanik.net/author/branislav-dimitrijevic/). Dimitrijević holds an MA degree in History and Theory of Art from the University of Kent (UK), and has received his PhD in Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies from the University of Arts in Belgrade for the thesis on the emergence of consumer culture in the socialist Yugoslavia.
Besa Luzha
Besa Luzha teaches Music at the University of Prishtina. She is a Master of Science in Music Pedagogy (2005), and a Doctor in Education from the University of London with the thesis “Music education in post-war Kosovo: Generalist and specialist teachers’ identities, beliefs and practices” Some of her most notable publications in the past four years include among others, “Why is Music important” an article published in the International Journal of Music Education; “Music, politics and identities” a paper presented in the International Conference on Music Education organized by ISME (International Society for Music Education) “Investigating students views on effectiveness of the Music Education program at the Faculty of Arts, Music Department” an IFS study. Luzha has organized many music activities immediately after the end of the war in Kosovo. The most important are two concerts with symphonic orchestra (27 and 28 November 1999)in Prishtina, Bach Week (2000) and the New Year Reception hosted by German KFOR General, Klaus Reinhardt,(January, 2000). Luzha was the main organizer of the first classical music festival in Kosovo,-first edition of Kammerfest (2000).She continuously takes initiatives to organize music events. Lately she also as a Secretary General of Kosovo Chopin Association, successfully has launched 5 editions of the well known internationally-Chopin PianoFEST Prishtina (2010-2014).
Bujar Hoxha
Dr. Bujar Hoxha was born in 1966 in Skopje, Macedonia. He finished his elementary and secondary school in his hometown. He enrolled Faculty of Philological Studies at the University of Skopje in 1984 and graduated in 1989: English Language and Literature with Italian Language and Literature. He further enrolled his Post-graduate studies at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, and gained his MA degree on the following topic: “Semiotics of the Characters of Othello and Rigoletto” in 1998. He enrolled doctoral studies and completed them in 2008, on the following topic: “Umberto Eco’s theoretical and methodological views: the poetics of the open work”. He gained the academic title of “Associate professor” in 2014, and currently works at the South-East European University in Tetovo and Skopje, Macedonia, since 2001. Until now Dr. Hoxha has been teaching the following subject-matters: Theory of Literature, Shakespeare’s Theatre, Introduction to Communication Sciences, Theory of Communication, Multicultural Communication, Semiotic Approaches to Communication.
Out of his publishing and scientific activities one can number the following: two novels in Albanian: ‘Rruga per ne Olimp”, Asdreni, Skopje, 1995, and “Ludvig Vani dhe une ishim vetem”, Shkupi, Skopje, 2006. He has further published the following: “Cultural Heritage and Identity: the Albanian Experience”, in ‘Albanian Journal of Educational Studies” , Tirana, Albania, 2014; “Normality vs. Abnormality in a Child’s Behavior”, European Scientific Journal, Macedonia, 2014, “A Paradoxical Way of Communication in Children with Autism” in “Sociology of Study:”, Illinois, USA, 2015, and “Sui limiti della semiotica. La soggettività opposta all’oggettività”, in EC – Rivista italiana degli studi semiotici, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy, in 2016. Dr. Hoxha is a member of the International Semiotic Institute in Kaunas Technology University, Kaunas, Lithuania, as well as a member of some international Projects under the supervision of Dr. Eero Tarasti from the University of Helsinki in Finland; such as: Semiotics of Cultural heritages, as well as Semiotics of Human Disabilities. His research fields include: semiotics of passions, semiotics of communication as well as existential semiotics.
Albert Heta
Albert Heta is an artist, curator, designer and social critic based in Prishtina, Kosovo. Heta’s works in contemporary art are often simple acts of intervention in an existing social condition, responses to a given situation, or rethinking of existing objects. His notable works ‘It’s time to go visiting: No visa required’, a public intervention on British Airways billboards in Prishtina (2003), ‘Embassy of the Republic of Kosova in Cetinje, SCG’ (2004) for Cetinje Biennale or his ‘Kosovar Pavilion Venice Biennial 2005’ (2005) distributed in collaboration with e-flux, are not merely the installations or acts of appropriation, but also acts of engagements with the conditions under which the works were accepted by the curators, media, politicians, and the public.
Since 2006, his work is also channeled through a collaborative intervention, project institution Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina. He is the co-editor of the publications "The way between Prishtina and Belgrade has 28000 un-proper build objects. So, never it will be an autobahn!"(2008) and “Are you a tourist or a traveler’ (2011). Albert Heta is a member of CIMAM. CIMAM is an International Committee of ICOM.
Lindita Tahiri
Lindita Tahiri teaches at the Department of English Language and Literature, at the Department of Journalism, as well as at the Master Program for Translation and Interpretation of the Faculty of Philology in Prishtina.. She has focused her Master and PhD studies in the field of stylistics. She has publications, including three books, in the field of critical linguistics, literary criticism and discourse analysis. She also publishes poetry, which has been translated in English, French, Dutch, and Macedonian.
She has been teaching at the University of Prishtina since 1985. She has been a grantee of the British Council at the University of East Anglia, a Fulbright student at the University of Chicago, a research assistant at the University of San Diego, and Humphrey scholar at the University of Maryland in Washington D.C.
Felix Gmelin
Felix Gmelin, born in Heidelberg 1962, studied at the The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm and currently shares his time in between Sarajevo, Stockholm and Oslo. In Oslo he serves as professor in contemporary art at the National Academy of the Arts KHiO since 2014. Gmelin’s work investigates political imagery and language by comparing contemporary political movements with those of times past in order to find artistic and sociopolitical models for the future. He is interested in the role of culture in society and how artistic methods can be used in times of social change, and how social change, in turn, can become part of personal cultural practice. His work has been presented to wider art audiences within exhibitions such as the 50th and 52nd Venice Biennale, the Berlin Biennale 4 and has most recently been seen at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg and within the Tirana Open 1 at Pallati i Kongreseve, Tirana, Albania.
Jelena Vesić
Jelena Vesić is independent curator, writer, editor and lecturer, who is based in Belgrade. She was co-editor of Prelom – Journal of Images and Politics (Belgrade) 2001–2009 and co-founder of independent organization Prelom Collective (Belgrade) 2005–2010, active in the field of publishing, research and exhibition practice that intertwines political theory and contemporary art. She is also co-editor of Red Thread – Journal for social theory, contemporary art and activism, (Istanbul) since 2009 and member of editorial board of Art Margins (MIT Press).
In her research, she explores the relations between art and ideology in the fields of geopolitical art history writing; experimental art and exhibition practices of the 1960s and 1970s in former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe; practices of self-organisation and self- management in contemporary cognitive capitalism, etc. Her curatorial practice often experiments with frameworks, methodologies, and contextual and collaborative aspects of art. Recent projects: Oktobar XXX: Exposition – Symposim – Performance , Cultural Centre Theatre, Panč evo 2012/Bone Festival, Bern, 2013; Against Art: Goran Đorđević – Copies (1979 -1985), Museum of Contemporary Art and City Gallery, Ljubljana - Belgrade, 2012/13; Lecture Performance, Museum of Contemporary Art and Koelnisher Kunstverein, Cologne-Belgrade, 2009/2010; Political Practices of (post-) Yugoslav Art: RETROSPECTIVE 01, Museum 25th of May, Belgrade, 2009.
Besa Luci
Besa Luci is the chief editor of Kosovo 2.0, an independent media that engages society in insightful debate through its multimedia website, print magazine, and public events. Besa co-founded Kosovo 2.0 in 2010, and it has created a space for a different and necessary discussion full of political, social and cultural commentary and reportage. It is the only media project in the region working in three languages (Albanian, Serbian and English) Besa has also worked as senior researcher with the Foreign Policy Club think tank.
She has also worked as a freelance researcher for Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Prishtina office. Past journalistic experience include: reporter at Women’s eNews, New York; assistant editor at the Global Journalist magazine, Missouri; contributing writer at VOX magazine, Missouri; editorial intern at New York Magazine, New York; reporter at Gotham Gazette, New York, etc. Besa is currently a Teaching Assistant at the Journalism Department, Faculty of Philology, University of Prishtina. She holds a BA in political science/international relations and journalism/mass communications from the American University in Bulgaria, and an MA in journalism/magazine writing from the Graduate School of Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia.
Yll Rugova
Yll Rugova (1984) is a information designer, typographer and activist. In 2005, together with two other graphic designers and illustrators, he founded the design company – Trembelat. As a poltical and social activist, he is known as one of the founders of Partia e Fortë (Strong Party) and initiator of a number of political and social activities in Kosovo.
Main supporters of SSAS 2016:
ERSTE Foundation, The Austrian Federal Chancellery, Trust for Mutual Understanding (TMU), Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kosovo and RIT Kosovo.
SSAS 2016 is also supported by:
Culture for All - phase III, Municipality of Prishtina, Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS), Independent Curators International (ICI) , The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Prishtina Office, Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Kosovo, Austrian Embassy in Pristina, Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia Priština, Ambassade de France à Pristina, Youth Initiative for Human Rights Office in Belgrade, AMM, X-Print and DZG.