09/08/2022
The afternoon of this Monday reserved a qualitative time in the premises of the house of "Shani Efendi". The opening of the "Performing Democracy" exhibition, a project realized in collaboration with Kiosk from Belgrade, Kontrapunkt from Skopje and DokuFest from Prizren managed to attract the attention of a number of people who visited it. The essence of the exhibition is about a bunch of videos in which people from different social groups from different cities of the Balkans are presented who show their concept related to the topic of democracy, naturally giving us a panorama of it in the countries where we live.
"Regarding this project, we have interviewed people from politics, everyday life, teachers, artists and each of them has shown his view on democracy. We made those videos together and through them we can understand how the citizens of each country see democracy. This exhibition had its first premiere in Belgrade two months ago, in Skopje, and now it's Prizren's turn as part of DokuFest", says Linda Llulla, executive director of DokuFest.
Meanwhile, in the same house, but in a different space, the "Humanitarian Rights Fund" in Kosovo, which deals with the documentation of war crimes, has brought another exhibition. It is about a corner of dealing with the past, where they have brought fragments of the exhibition "Once upon a time that never happened", which has been open since 2019 in this center, dedicated to children who have lost their lives or disappeared as a result of the war in Kosovo.
Vesa Qena, manager of the "Documentation Center with the Past" narrated the reason why the idea to bring this exhibition to DokuFest was born.
"We had the idea to bring a part of this exhibition to DokuFest and a room is dedicated to the story of Gramoz Berisha, a survivor of the Suhareka massacre. He tells how he managed to escape together with his mother and uncle's wife when he was 8 years old. It is the "dark room" in which the viewer comes and listens to Gramozi's confession, while in the other room we have shown 6 animated films on monitors showing tragic events in the days they happened."
Both exhibitions can be easily visited by anyone who is interested in learning more about the stories of these people, as their placement in the same building and opening on the same day is no coincidence. Both of these are dedicated to the people, the region and the past of his countries. Not only in Kosovo, but for all former Yugoslavia. The exhibitions will remain open until the 13th of this month at the house of "Shani Efendi".
By Ana Haxhimali
Photo Credits: Elmedina Arapi