Flaka Haliti
Speculating on the Blue
May 9–November 22, 2015
Opening: May 6, 3pm
Professional preview: May 5–8
Pavilion of The Republic of Kosovo
Arsenale
Venice
Curator: Nicolaus Schafhausen
Co-Curator: Katharina Schendl
Commissioner: Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo
For her solo presentation at the Kosovo Pavilion, Flaka Haliti conceived the site-specific installation Speculating on the Blue, reflecting on the meaning of borders, democracy, freedom and mobility.
The skeletons of barrier-like objects that occupy the exhibition space are a reference to the aesthetics of the concrete walls that are erected between nations and regions as a materialization of conflict. Haliti’s installation aims at de-militarizing and de-contextualizing this specific aesthetic regime by stripping the columns down to their material essence and juxtaposing them with elements that are by nature resistant to the concept of borders. In this scenario, the horizon and the blue pictorial ground create a counter image to the concept of borders and function as a tool to raise new perspectives. The interplay of the elements and the different images they generate is the artist’s method for creating an intermediate space that allows for the subjective experience of viewers engaging with her work.
Her approach is one of recontextualizing global politics through disconnection from its regime of appearance. The metaphor of the horizon, simultaneously emblem of possibility and enigma of our limitations is woven into the fabric of our past and present. By drawing on the universal meaning of this metaphor, the artist removes the image economy of the horizon from any specific spatial-temporal context and speculates on its validity as an eternal truth.
With Speculating on the Blue, Flaka Haliti positions the observer in an intermediate space that oscillates between expansion and confinement, proximity and distance; a space that opens up multiple temporal dimensions simultaneously and as a result is experienced as a work of constant actualization.
Flaka Haliti (born 1982 in Prishtina/Kosovo) lives in Munich/Germany. Her most recent exhibitions include Ludlow 38, New York (2015); Kosovo National Gallery, Prishtina, Kosovo (2014); mumok, museum of modern art Vienna (2014); October Salon, Belgrade, Serbia (2013); MMK-Zollamt, Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt am Main (2013); ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (2012); and MUSAC, Castilla y León, Spain (2012). She received a BA at Faculty of Arts Prishtina University in 2006, studied Freie Bildende Kunst at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, and is currently doing a PhD in Practice Program at Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Haliti was recently awarded the Ars Viva Prize 2015.
Nicolaus Schafhausen is the director of the Kunsthalle Wien and strategic director of Fogo Island Arts an initiative of the Canadian Shorefast Foundation. From 2006 to 2012 he headed the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. Nicolaus Schafhausen was the curator of the German Pavilion for the 52nd and 53rd Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2009.
The catalogue accompanying Speculating on the Blue is designed by Bardhi Haliti and published by Sternberg Press. It includes an essay by Vanessa Joan Müller, a conversation between Flaka Haliti and Markus Miessen, and a foreword by Nicolaus Schafhausen.
Media contact
International: Katharina Schendl, biennale [at] kosovopavilion.com / T +43 699 11583089
Kosovo: Gegë Promotion, T +386 49 169 37
