• Vatra Abrashi, Leutrim Fishekxhiu, Joanna Warsza, Övül Ö. Durmusoglu at SSAS 2021
Vatra Abrashi, Leutrim Fishekxhiu, Joanna Warsza and Övül Ö. Durmusoglu: Public Lecture
Vatra Abrashi, Leutrim Fishekxhiu, Joanna Warsza, Övül Ö. Durmusoglu at Summer School as School 2021
August 10, 2021, 20:00
Venue: Boxing Club

Vatra Abrashi, Leutrim Fishekxhiu, Joanna Warsza and Övül Ö. Durmusoglu: Autostrada Biennale was established by two artists and a pedagogue in 2014. As the only contemporary art institution in Prizren, Kosovo, it functions on two speeds: one is a physical exhibition taking place in public space every two years, the second is a long-term educational center in the former KFOR camp, where the exhibition preparation process is open to the public, making creation of the artworks a form of learning and critical thinking.

What if a journey...
Autostrada Biennale 2021 is an exhibition about the unfinished. It can be a road, an electrification map, a house, a flower field, a story, a relationship, or a country. It is an exhibition that takes incompleteness as an invitation to respond, to relate and to grow.

Biographies

Joanna Warsza is Program Director of CuratorLab at Konstfack University of Arts in Stockholm, and an interdependent curator and editor interested in how art functions politically and socially outside the white cubes. She was the Artistic Director of Public Art Munich 2018, curator of the Georgian Pavilion at the 55thVenice Biennale and associate curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale and edited several books. She is currently preparing, together with Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, the third edition of the Autostrada Biennale in Kosovo for summer 2021. Originally from Warsaw, Warsza lives in Berlin.

Övül Ö. Durmusoglu (born 1978) is a curator and critic who completed a BA in Translating and Interpreting at Bogazici University, Istanbul and an MFA in the theory branch of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design at Sabanci University, Istanbul. She also participated in the Critical Studies program at Malmö Art Academy, Malmö. In addition to contributing to local art and culture magazines such as Cogito, Kaos GL, and icon, Durmuşoğlu has been working with Altyazi Monthly Cinema Magazine (Istanbul) since its foundation. She has also given public talks on feminism, performance art, and pornography in Istanbul and Ankara. Recent publications include: Paletten (Gothenburg); n.paradoxa (London); Muhtelif (Istanbul/Berlin); and Kulturrise (Vienna). Recent curatorial projects include: Data Recovery, GAMeC, Bergamo, 2007; Nightcomers, 10th International Istanbul Biënnal, Istanbul, 2007; EXOCiTi, Istanbul, 2006; and Ittihad Sigorta, Istanbul, 2005. In 2007, she was awarded the 4th edition of the Premio Lorenzo Bonaldi Young Curators Award in Italy. Durmuşoğlu lives and works in Istanbul and Vienna.