Translated into Socialism presents the little-known history of the Turkish-speaking community in Yugoslavia, more precisely, in Kosovo and Macedonia. It explores how, in a multinational social context, a Turkish identity was affirmed and transformed under socialist ideology.
The historical scope of Translated into Socialism goes back to 1920, the year when a part of the oppressed Muslim population in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia saw their redemption in leftist ideas. It traces the story of a new generation of activists who helped clear the way for a socialist future, a vision that was violently interrupted by the monarchic regime. Building upon this legacy, the exhibition expands into the new reality of the Socialist Yugoslavia until the late 1980s.
Even though the Turkish-speaking community officially constituted a small part of the population, policies towards national minorities enabled the proliferation of numerous initiatives operating in the Turkish language. These included newspapers, periodicals, schools, and various cultural and political organizations. The interconnectedness of these initiatives facilitated a nuanced perspective that challenges mainstream approaches to nationalism and questions the “totalitarian” and “ethno-nationalist” discourse of Yugoslavia, consolidated by its traumatic breakup during the 1990s wars.
Translated into Socialism reworks historical materials sourced from private archives and public libraries, many of which are being unearthed for the first time. These materials are juxtaposed with contemporary works by Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun, Yane Calovski, Hana Miletić, Ahmet Öğüt, Fevzi Tüfekçi, and Dilek Winchester. The exhibition explores the construction of a national consciousness based on internationalism and solidarity, while revealing how the historical distinctiveness of Yugoslavia’s socialism, such as self-management and non-alignment, shaped the ways the Turkish-speaking community was imagined. Highlighting new cultural forms arising from these complex dynamics, it weaves together an unfamiliar story that remains unique and relevant.
Translated into Socialism is programmed by Sezgin Boynik, Tevfik Rada, and Merve Elveren and realized in collaboration with the Lumbardhi Foundation (Kosovo). Accompanying public programs will be announced soon at saltonline.org and Salt’s social media channels.
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Program: Merve Elveren
Research: Sezgin Boynik, Tevfik Rada (Pykë-Presje)
Artists: Mustafa Emin Büyükcoşkun, Yane Calovski, Hana Miletić, Ahmet Öğüt, Fevzi Tüfekçi, Dilek Winchester
Exhibition Coordinator: Sezin Romi
Exhibition Design and Production: Emirhan Altuner
Editor: Ezgi Yurteri
Graphic Design: Bardhi Haliti
Communication Design: Emirhan Altuner, Elif Tuna
Installation: Eray Özcan, Burak Bodur, Fiksatif, OCD Museum Works, 3T Reklam
Acknowledgments: Gönül Bektaş; Tacida & Nimetullah Hafız; Altay Suroy; BAL-TAM, Balkan Center for Turkological Studies (Prizren); Cinematheque of North Macedonia Archive; Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia; Museum of Revolution, Phototheque Collection, Museum of Kosovo; The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Archive of the History Department (Skopje); TÜSTAV (Istanbul); Museum of Yugoslavia Archive (Belgrade)
The exhibition is realized with the contributions of Asya International Movers, Eureko Sigorta, and Jotun.
On October 12, we await for you all to Kino Lumbardhi for this year's last Skaj Session.
Skaj Session started as a music program connecting different musical styles and geographies on one stage and we have had the pleasure to welcome this year to Kino Lumbardhi artists like Siksa, Putan Club, Jay-Jay Johanson, Gillespie, Kolektiv RKS, Heavenphetamine, Tringa Sadiku and Torrin Williams, and now we are proud to close the program with two performances that connect the soulful and eclectic melodies together with the powerful and unapologetic rhythms in one night with Rita Braga and Blla Blla Blla...
Rita Braga is a musician from Portugal whose music takes from the pioneers of post-punk, electronica and cabaret. She has recently released her latest album “Illegal Planet” while she has been performing all over the world for around 15 years and has collaborated with artists such as Ana da Silva (The Raincoats), Felix Kubin, Ian Svenonius (who we also had the pleasure to have at Kino Lumbardhi) and others.
Blla Blla Blla… was formed in 1988 and they have played locally, regionally and beyond. The band started experimenting in different styles and forms of music until they created their own style music until they created their own style which they called: “Oversky balkanishe Re-form” which is also the title of their second album.
The musical current they belong to is often considered “art rock” mixing rock rhythms with different instruments, as in this case, the typical violin of Blla Blla Blla..., strong vocals and unique stage performance.
Make sure to get your ticket only at Kino Lumbardhi while the doors will open just as the clock sets on 8pm.
For the third time, the Experimental Ensemble of Lumbardhi together with the composer Ilir Bajri worked for around a week to compose a soundtrack for Besim Sahatçi's documentary titled "Pehlivanët".
The Lumbardhi Experimental Ensemble, an initiative of the Lumbardhi Foundation, this time composed of 11 instrumentalists under the direction of composer Ilir Bajri, created and performed the soundtrack live on August 6, 2024, on the stage of Kino Lumbardhi, which was also part of the special performances at the XXIII edition of the Dokufest documentary film festival.
Find the full performance: here.
The Experimental Ensemble of Lumbardhi and Pehlivanët: Resounded was supported by the Ministry of Culture, Youth And Sport, Dokufest and ITP Prizren.
Credits
Ilir Bajri: Director of the Ensemble
Cemi Tatar : Drummer & Artistic Coordinator
Diart Ramadani: Sound Engineer
Ares Shporta: Executive Producer
Instrumentalists :
Iris Perolli - Viola
Lirdina Kukaj - Viola
Gresa Broqi - Cello
Urim Maliqi - Guitar
Anjeza Namligjiu - Piano / Synth
Eleonida Elezi - Piano / Synth
Viola Recaj - Piano / Synth
Rinë Foniqi - Clarinet
Malbora Krajku - Clarinet
Alba Basha - Flute
Nita Krajku - Flute
Team:
Fisnik Eger: Event Coordinator
Hazir Dula: Production Coordinator / Documentary digitalization
Ardit Guncati: Administation and Finance Officer
September comes with the sounds of the guitars of Tringa Sadiku and Torrin Williams, in a duo performance at Kino Lumbardhi. On September 6 from 20:00, they will perform a repertoire of classical music that contains different sensibilities and rhythms, from classical to baroque, from folkloric and popular Spanish music to other contemporary revivals.
Tringa and Torrin, both musicians and skilled and talented guitarists, starting with Tringa: she started her career in Kosovo and from there she participated in important festivals both inside and outside the country (Festiwal Akademia Gitary, Poland; Berlin Guitar Festival, Germany; Dam Festival, Kosovo; Chopin Piano Fest, Kosovo, etc.). While Torrin started playing guitar in London (Guildhall School of Music/Purcell School for Young Musicians) and had his first solo concert debut at Wigmore Hall.
Both are students in Graz, where they started their collaboration, and they are waiting for you in Prizren this beginning of September for a musical evening full of joy.
The XXIII edition of Dokufest finds the documentary film festival with a multitude of film, music and entertainment programs, so we are waiting for you at Kino Lumbardhi through the program "Blast from the Past" with three films from the archive of our cinema.
On the day of the opening ceremony (02.08) we welcome you with Stanley Kubrick's iconic film “Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb". Then we continue on August 8th at Doku Kino with the film "8 1/2" by Federico Fellini and finally on August 9 at Kino Bahçe, with Wim Wenders' film "Paris, Texas".
Find the program via this link and see you at Kino Lumbardhi!
Are you an artist or cultural worker, researcher or journalist interested in the relation of independent spaces and cultural communities? Do you seek to explore the conditions, challenges, relationships and impact of these spaces on their communities? If so, we invite you to apply for our 5-week residency program, designed to offer deeper insights into the world of independent cultural spaces across Croatia (Rijeka and Zagreb), Kosovo (Prizren) and Slovenia (Kranj and Maribor).
Program Overview:
The program is conceived to provide a comprehensive exploration of independent spaces and cultural scenes, focusing on their sustainability, the issues they face nowadays, and their role in supporting artistic practice and mobility through residencies. We are interested in understanding the significance of these spaces within the local community and the various actors involved.
With the support of hosting partners, the residents will be able to conduct their research, meet with organizations, artists and workers from the independent scene. Through their stay, they gain new and different perspectives about the scene and conduct a multifaceted examination of independent spaces, combining artistic expression with analytical insight and establishing new relations between the scenes.
Open Call for Participants:
We are seeking creative and curious socially-engaged participants to join our residency program. Participants will be selected through this open call based on their motivation and previous experiences. Two artists and two cultural workers, researchers, or journalists with a focus in independent culture will be selected from each country to attend the residency in one of the other countries.
The Residency Experience:
Throughout a five-week stay between February and March 2025, residents will have the chance to immerse themselves in the local scene, experiencing "slow" mobility that allows for a profound understanding of the spaces and communities they visit. Artists will conduct artistic research presented through their chosen topic and medium, while cultural workers/researchers/journalists will be expected to provide a textual reflection of their experience.
At the conclusion of the residency, residents will present their works to the local public through small-scale exhibitions, presentations or other forms of public events of their choice, to be programmed with the host institution. This will offer a new perspective on the position and relevance of independent spaces, as well as other observations about the cultural scene and its relation to various communities.
How to Apply:
Through this call, the projects Residency board will select 6 artists and 6 cultural workers/journalists/researchers (2 in each group per country) for a 5-week residency in one of the other partner countries. Residents are expected to produce at least one output of their research to be presented.
Please submit your application, including a CV, a selection of relevant work samples, and a motivation letter which includes a statement of interest with a proposal for your research project during the residency.
Applications will be reviewed by the Residency board, and selected participants will be notified by the end of October. Based on the short-list of the applications, the board may invite applicants for online interviews.
Deadline: 30.09.2024
For more information contact us at info@lumbardhi.org.
A film program focused on climate change in collaboration with SALT
As part of the 2024 summer film program, the Lumbardhi Foundation, in collaboration with Salt, presents a selection of “Is this our last chance?”, a decade-long film program calling attention to climate change and its vast impact on humans, nature, and the world.
Initiated in 2015 by Salt, the program encourages reconsideration of people’s actions on the environment and biodiversity through talks and documentary screenings from various geographies exploring diverse themes, actions, and inquiries into environmental issues related to climate change.
The documentary From the Wild Sea (2021) focuses on the collision between humans and nature, offering perspectives from both sides; we get to explore solitary life in Geographies of Solitude (2022), singularly portrayed by an environmentalist. From capturing the disappearance of the scientific caretakers of nature in Fauna (2023), we jump to new ways of labor organization in a goldmine factory in Utopia Revisited and then to rethinking nature as the sole provider of life continuation in Longyearbyen, A Bipolar City (2016). From economics to survival, we explore the nature and social hierarchies in Mothers of the Land to seed worldwide transportation in Wild Relatives (2018), where layered experiences spanning economics, survival, and environmental issues are explored.
The program is presented in collaboration with Salt, founded by Garanti BBVA, with the support of the European Cultural Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
Program:
July 2024
07.07.2024
FROM THE WILD SEA
Directed by Robin Petré
Denmark, 2021 – Documentary – 78 min.
From the Wild Sea is a poetic documentary film that zooms in on the complex collision between humans and nature. It takes us on a disturbing and fascinating journey into the emerging Anthropocene Era, seen from both the human and animal perspectives.
13.07.2024
GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE
Directed by Jacquelyn Mills
Canada, 2022 – Documentary – 104 min.
Environmentalist Zoe Lucas has cataloged flora and fauna on Sable Island, a thin strip of land off the Canadian coast, for decades. Zoe, the island’s only full-time human inhabitant, embarks on solitary excursions to observe the dunes, starry skies, wild horses, and washed-up plastic waste.
17.07.2024
FAUNA
Directed by Pau Faus
Spain, 2023 – Documentary – 74 min.
On the outskirts of Barcelona, a farmer and his herd live next door to a hi-tech lab that performs animal testing. The farmer—suffering from a bone disease—witnesses the disappearance of his profession, while the scientists are busier than ever.
31.07.2024
UTOPIA REVISITED
Directed by Kurt Langbein
Germany – 2018 – Documentary – 91 min.
This is a documentary about alternative economic projects like a fair trade goldmine or a tea factory that is owned by its workers.
AUGUST
16.08.2024
MOTHERS OF THE LAND
Directed by Alvaro Sarmiento, Diego Sarmiento
Peru, 2019 – Documentary -74 min.
In the Andean worldview, women and the earth are strongly interrelated. Both are capable of giving and nurturing life. Mothers of the Land accompanies five women in their daily struggle to maintain a traditional and organic way of working the land.
23.08.2024
LONGYEARBYEN, A BIPOLAR CITY
Directed by Manuel Deiller
France - 2016 – Documentary – 56 min.
In the Arctic, the Norwegian city of Longyearbyen, located in the Svalbard archipelago, has been extracting coal for one hundred years as an energetic and economic source, which stirs many environmental paradoxes.
30.08.2024
WILD RELATIVES
Directed by Jumana Manna
Germany, Lebanon, Norway - 2018 – Documentary – 66 min.
Wild Relatives follows the matrix of hierarchies and relationships involved in a seed transaction between the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, an island in the Arctic Ocean, and the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.
Skaj Sessions continue with Heavenphetamine and Kolektiv Radio on the evening of June 29, from 20:30.
From the music selection that comes from the collective in Prizren to the combination of electronic music with punk rhythms, this Skaj Session awaits you all.
Get to know Heavenphetamine:
With an easily recognizable style, the duo of Sara (drums/vocals) and Hiroki Oda (keyboards/vocals) synchronize on synthetic frequencies dynamically mixing electronic compositions and punk rhythms, all without the use of a metronome.
Their music carries influences from western indie music as well as Japanese melodies, rhythms and verses, and this creates an exotic musical picture.
Participating in many stages, such as the five-month tour in Ukraine in 2022 or the 2023 tour in Estonia, France and Ukraine, they come for the first time to Prizren, Kosovo.
Get to know Kolektiv Radio
Kolektiv Radio is a non-commercial community radio station based in Prizren, promoting underground music from the region and all around the world. Besides its online platform, Kolektiv Radio runs its own space, open for music organizations, jam sessions, listening sessions as well as other related activities. One of the main purposes of Kolektiv Radio is to establish a community through experimenting with the new forms of musical practice, while also empowering the youth with the tools and knowledges necessary for digital radio and music production.
Skaj Session continues at Kino Lumbardhi with the aim of exploring through music, not only the limits and what we can accept and tolerate, but also as a movement between different cultures that share the same stage separated from the geographical or identity limits between them. cultural similes.
At Kino Lumbardhi on June 16, the well-known musician Jay Jay Johanson and the Kosovar group Gillespie, and both performances promise to navigate the emotional edges that are protected in the field of personal and collective experiences, parties until late at night, the need to stand out in a band that dances, the desire to fully enjoy yourself being an inherent part of the country and the place you live.
More about artist Jay Jay Johanson:
Jay Jay Johanson is a Swedish musician who fuses the restrained and downbeat aesthetic of trip-hop with the metallic pulse of electro-pop that brings his all-music signature of brooding sounds under the rhythms of a melancholy . electric.
He was born in Trollhattan, Sweden, where he started his musical career with the album "Whisky" in 1996 and then the album "Tattoo" in 1998.
His third album in 2000 titled "Poison" featured Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie and was successful in the French music charts. Among many other albums, other tours and successful successes in film, music and fashion, Jay Jay Johanson released his fourteenth album entitled "FETISH", and in June he comes to his first concert in Kosovo.
More about the Gillespie group:
Gillespie is a popular underground band in Kosovo, formed in 2005. They are known for their live performances weaving their sound with a loud psychedelic mix. Their first album "An ordinary day" has 10 songs, before the others "E" and "Luledlli" stand out, which also recognized the music of Albanian music in the list of songs as well as in various festivals.
The band has also released the Femme Fatale EP, which it found in Albania and Kosovo.
Their work in music finds a combination of urban phenomena as well as sensitivities in time laid out in songs that experiment under the current of rock'n'roll and indie rock. Their 2010 Countdown album and 2017's Somewhere, Somewhere of their lives, synthesizing observations of metropolitan life and personal experiences of collective alienation.
Gillespie plays Kosovo, Albania and extensively in the Balkans.
In the last presentation of this series, Blerta Hoçia will present some works from her photo series: 'Bride with a sheet on her head', 'Demiurgu', 'I have many eyes, beautiful eyes' and 'Long live'.
Blerta Hoçia is an artist and curator from Albania who currently lives and works in Pristina. She completed her higher studies at the Academy of Florence. She was the head of Conservation and Archive Management at the Marubi National Museum of Photography in Albania and is the founder of the interdisciplinary platform, Nisesos - Chronicle from the Periphery. She currently works as a curator and researcher at the Fund for Humanitarian Rights Kosovo, FDHK.
The presentation will be held on Thursday from 19:00 in the Albanian language.
