On Friday, October 27th, HLCK had the pleasure to present the work of the artist Barbara Prenka at the opening of the exhibition 'New Day' at the Documentation Center Kosovo. Barbara's work is the result of the call for artistic projects that aim on dealing with the past.
'In one of these photographs, a carpet that once decorated my aunt's house was burned by the Serbian army. This carpet became the starting point of my project, because it symbolized a life before the war, a moment that was cut short by the war and which I tried to revive from the nothingness of that carpet burned by the flames.'
Memories take time and stories serve a process of healing and approximation between generations. This is also the aim of the artist Barbara Prenka in her exhibition. Her work is a process of discovery and digging into past stories, where through the stories of her grandmother, mother and aunts, she manages to recreate the path traveled by her family during the war. Everything begins with a small archive of family photos. It is surprising how in the horror and anxiety of being evicted from burning houses, carrying only a few vital items hastily, family photographs are also found. The artist shows that it was a natural act, an attempt to protect the memories of the homeland from the destruction of the war and to take with it a fragment of time, for which it was not clear whether there would be another opportunity to find it again.
Then, the artist decides to turn these found photographs into real carpets, by printing them on textile. The manufacturing process involves manually placing a thread inside a perforated textile; this is an old traditional technique that is practiced by Kosovan women in their run-up to marriage, when they weave carpets called "Jani", as part of their wedding dowry. The printing of such photos intends to connect the images with a tradition that has been passed down from one generation to the next, thus transforming the rug into a story-telling object.
Barbara's work does not end in the manufacturing of carpets, it turns into a performance, which is documented step by step, as she focuses on the interactive nature of this work and on strengthening the relationship between the women of the family, whom the artist includes so actively that the pieces may be said to become collective work.
Visitors to this exhibition will have the opportunity to get closer to these stories through videos that have a hypnotic effect, such videos have the ability to grab the viewer into an endless gesture, the one of connecting, one by one, thousands of threads of jani, which slowly move away from the abstract and in turn create the silent figures of the photographs of the past. All this accompanied by the deep voice of the grandmother, the mother and the aunt, who tell the stories about the long pathways taken by all the refugees of the war, about the wounds, about the flour and the bread, about the hospitality and solidarity between people.
In an analogous manner, the threads that weave the carpet, once burned, continue to bind the relationships between generations, the past, the present and the new day to come.
‘New Day’ has been realized in collaboration with Brigita Gecaj, Zoja Markaj, Leze Quni, Marija Prenka, and Roza Prenka.
This artwork is part of the exhibitions organized by the Documentation Center Kosovo, and contributes to dealing with the past through artistic works and creations.
Supported by: Swiss Confederation - Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs.