Skaj Session starts on the 26th of April at Lumbardhi and presents a musical program that carries the weight of experimenting, being in strong connection with what we overcome, tolerate and accept.
Music as the connecting point of this feeling, brings a series of groups from Poland to Japan, and from the U.S. back to Kosovo and its expanded region, under the theme of Skaj (Edge), as an opportunity to articulate the various musical layers, to grasp the seed of revolt, calmness, agony, or even illusory feelings.
What is the edge, but the need to host the world inside of you, and to make sense of the stories we tell about ourselves and others.
Opening with Siksa’s stop in Prizren during their Devilicious tour on Friday, we get a chance to listen a feminist duo combining the energy of a punk concert, performative poetry or contemporary dance. Their work is personal, political and finds ways into articulating the stance of the unspoken meeting the deafening.
Thanks to the interaction with the audience, every show acquires unique dramatic qualities. In the limitations of the instruments and stage presence, the duo finds the strength to carve their own path.
Following up the same night we will welcome Putan Club, a duo from Italy and France standing as a time machine and the future footprint of what it means to be brave, revolutionary and a musical force of liberation.
Their resistance is organized by the archaic and immediate means of our century: electric voices and rumors, tanks and counted words, like saying from cave painting to the most daring conceptualism, from avant- rock to contemporary classical music and more brutal techno/house.
They have performed in numerous states and festivals [Amplifest (PT), Bazant Pohoda ( SK), Tomorrow Fest (Shenzhen, RPC), Milhoes ( PT), Croisements festival (Beijing, RPC)], and will be soon here in Prizren for a night of pure exaltation.
In the third week of the series, Ferdi Limani will make a presentation about the photographs he took during the period 1999-2022.
Ferdi became interested in photography at the end of the 90s when Kosovo was going through atrocities. Documenting history was the main motivation to continue this profession by studying journalism and working with local newspapers and international media in Kosovo and other countries. In addition to working as a freelancer, he is a contributor to the agency Getty Images.
The presentation will be held on Thursday from 19:00 in the Albanian language.
In the second week of the Photo Talks series, Majlinda Hoxha will talk about photography in which concept, everyday life and documentation meet.
Born in 1984, in Kosovo — Hoxha is a photographer based in Pristina. She earned her MFA degree from Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, New Zealand in 2008. Hoxhe's photography draws inspiration from the language of fragmentation and displacement, and is very sensitive to the recent political and social turmoil in Kosovo.
The presentation will be held on Thursday from 19:00 in the Albanian language.
On Thursday from 19:00 we begin with the first session of the Photo Talks series. Burim Myfitu will present the wide spectrum of his work from everyday photographs to long-term projects that he has developed in the last three decades. After the presentation, the Mufti will engage in a conversation with the curator of the program, Ferdi Limani, as well as in a conversation with the public.
Burim Muftiu (MA) is an Albanian-American artist born in 1961 in Prizren. He is a professor of photography at AAB University, art curator and photographer. He is a member of the Association of Visual Artists of Kosovo as well as a member of the Arts Council in New Haven, USA.
The talk weaves memories of 1980s Prizren into what I know of language and cognition.
First, I sketch changes in views of mind, languages and cognitive process. Over 40 years, a focus on computation shifted, first, to embodiment and, later, to how languaging rides in tandem with practices. Much depends on imagining the future –how, together with the other, one uses an emplaced moment to call forth the possible.
In addressing Prizren 2024, I draw on the ecolinguistic mission of seeking to enhance life-
sustaining relations. Given where we are coming from, we can act to better living,
enlanguaged place-worlds.
By enacting future making in a familiar thirdspace, we bundle practices to trigger positive outcomes that resonate with living others. Like them, we can change our living and our languaging. In future making, we can release half-forgotten pasts that engender our own half-sensed potential.
More about the guest:
Stephen Cowley is Emeritus Professor of Organizational Cognition at the University of Southern Denmark. His varied career took him to Italy, Sweden, Yugoslavia, South Africa, the UK and Denmark. During the unforgettable years of 1982-1984, he taught in Prizren. Having battled at learning Albanian, but failed with Gheg and Prizren Turkish, he was moved to ask unusual questions. This took him to a transdisciplinary spurred view of languages, mind and, indeed, how being human fits with life itself.
More about the program:
The presentation the first in a series of lectures organized within the project “Permanent Transition” supported by the European Cultural Foundation.
The program brings a set of researchers and practitioners from arts, linguistics, agriculture, economy and other fields, proposing a diverse understanding of the climate crisis and possible courses of action into the future.
At Kino Lumbardhi start the Photo Talks series, which include presentations and discussions of photography practices throughout the month of November 2022.
The series of presentations is carried out alongside the focus of the Lumbardhi Foundation on the digitization and interpretation of photographic archives, as well as the study of the image in both artistic practices and documentary in Kosovo and the region.
In the first series, photographer and curator Ferdi Limani will be joined by Burim Myftiu, Blerta Hoçia and Majlinda Hoxha, who will present their work at length and engage in conversations with the public.
The program will be organized from 2 November until 23 November, each Thursday starting from 19:00.
Lumbardhi Foundation is pleased to announce its transitional visual identity “Kinography” designed by KHORA Office.
Inspired by the elusive heritage elements discovered at Lumbardhi Cinema, Kinography was generated in parallel to Lumbardhi Foundation’s gradual transition to Phase II. Its visual vocabulary was built through the experimental process of re-thinking and repairing the cinema while becoming a dynamic and contemporary institution.
Designer and creative director, Ali Cindoruk of KHORA explains the thought processes behind the development of Kinography:
“We joined in the efforts to save the Lumbardhi Cinema from a privatized or demolished fate in 2016. Ever since, we have been an active participant in the emergence of Lumbardhi Foundation. Our part of this work has been to clarify, distill and crystallize the ideas and possibilities which constantly change and transform in time. For Lumbardhi, we have generated key expressions, experiences and interactions of spatial, visual, material, digital, narrative and of a choreographic nature.
As an institution in the making, Lumbardhi’s identity was formulated as the contemplation of an institution in terms of its future desires, current capacities and its connections to heritage through its residence within the historic landmark building of Kino Lumbardhi.
A chance encounter in the course of a spatial inspection led us to the discovery of a number of visual elements which the building inherited in the form of wood inlay on some cabinet doors.
These visual elements, namely five geometric abstract shapes, were to become the first and the founding components of “Kinography” - Lumbardhi's identity system that is based on the concepts of multiplicity and evolution rather than a singular and logo-centered design. We called these shapes 'Kinograms' as they constitute the founding grammar of Lumbardhi’s visual alphabet, a continuum of multiple and layered expressions that is to dynamically evolve and expand in time, similar to the institution itself.
Lumbardhi expresses these multiplicities through several distinct programming outlets which we have generated as kinograms for QARK, Kinofiguration, Bllogu and various campaigns that emerge with different properties and temporalities yet, together, they form a conglomerate that makes up the ever willful Lumbardhi”.
Seven decades ago, Lumbardhi opened its doors to build a cinema culture in Prizren, housing many communities that have been shaped in front of the screens and in the spaces of the cinema.
We invite you all to follow us in this symbolic year through our research, programs, publications and visions stemming from 70 years of a complex history, and seven years of dedication for reimagining this institution.
The team and the board of Lumbardhi Foundation remains grateful to the generations who shaped this monument of collective memory, as well as collaborators, partners and all those who triggered the initiative and supported the process of reviving Lumbardhi Cinema.
For the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the opening of the cinema, Lumbardhi Foundation presents the film program LXX in the format of the Film Club, Wednesdays and Saturdays, starting at 19:00 at Kino Holli.
The films have been carefully selected by the curatorial group comprised of the deputy director for research & programs at Lumbardhi Foundation, Bengi Muzbeg, filmmaker, curator and researcher Kumjana Novakova and the artistic director of DokuFest, Veton Nurkollari.
Curatorial Statement
"From the humble beginnings in the early 50s, through the eye-opening repertoire of the 60s, to the splendid offering in the 70s and 80s and all the way to its equally inglorious decline in the 90s, the full glory of world cinema was to be found in this small part of the world and in the iconic Lumbardhi cinema in Prizren, which this year celebrates its 70thbirthday.
To celebrate it a small curatorial team comprised of the deputy director for research & programs at Lumbardhi Foundation, Bengi Muzbeg, filmmaker, curator, and researcher Kumjana Novakova and the artistic director of DokuFest, Veton Nurkollari went through the archives of cinema in order to come up with a selection of 70 films, and with the aim of presenting to the audience a diverse and comprehensive list of, what Amos Vogel argues is, ‘the potentially most powerful art form of the century.’
Looking at the list, one will find an impressive selection of socially, culturally, and artistically worthwhile films, including early Soviet war movies, American melodramas, films by the Italian neorealism and French New Wave, American and Spaghetti westerns, Propaganda movies, as well as an impressive list of almost every Yugoslav film produced at that time, including the famous war epics. Along many other, often unexpected films, which include examples of early erotic and soft porn, horror and other cinema genres that have been screened in these past 70 years. Thus, we are delighted to present this collection, that we believe holds together in a narrative of some kind and is a snapshot of the bygone times, wit the hope that the audience will enjoy it as much as we did whilst preparing it."
Shilpa Ray (USA) - Portrait of a Lady
Opening act: Zwada (RKS)
Sunday, October 2 - 20:00
Entrance: Pay what you want
Kino Lumbardhi
On October 2nd, American singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, New York, Shilpa Ray, known for the DIY feminist punk experimental sound will once again embark at Lumbardhi in Prizren on the tour of “Portrait of a Lady”, preceded by the local band Zwada, thus marking the conclusion of the concert season at Lumbardhi.
Shilpa Ray’s music has been compared to Blondie, The Cramps, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and her singing has been compared to the style of Patti Smith, Nick Cave, and Ella Fitzgerald. Ray is notable for combining an Indian harmonium with a "big-voiced blues-rock howler" vocal approach and is known to sing in styles ranging from metal to the balladry of Leonard Cohen.
Musically, “The Portrait of a Lady” draws from 80's surrealism and French New Wave - taking synths, beats, guitar and vocal influences from early Ministry, Billy Idol, Pat Benetar, Francoise Hardy and LA hair/glam metal.
Elaborating on the influences and the meaning of the record, Shilpa Ray stresses: “A few years ago I stumbled upon a Nan Goldin exhibit featuring her photos from The Ballad of Sexual Dependency and it shook me to my core. It made me reflect on my own experiences with sexual assault and abuse as well as the media explosion that has resulted from the #metoo movement. Portrait Of A Lady is not necessarily a political record as it is a personal one, showing the good, the bad and the ugly, as well as the power one can ultimately hold being a survivor”.
The evening will start with the Prishtina-based band, ZWADA led by Suada Abazi, an artist from Prishtina who at the very beginning of her career attracted attention with her voice and songs through a beautiful combination of genres that she created.
ZWADA consists of Suada Abazi (vocals / guitar), Lum Veseli (drums), Orges Kurtaj (bass guitar) and Andi Sadiku (guitar).
Although they are inspired by indie rock, pop and alternative music, they do not prefer to be categorized, as their goal is to flow freely in music.
The entrance to the concert is ‘pay what you want’ to contribute to the cultural life and to art.
This evening is made possible with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and Ayefleet.