On March 9th, 2022, Sezin Romi, the Senior Librarian and Archivist at SALT (Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey) will give an online talk in the context of Lumbardhi’s Public Archive project which aims to build an archive collection focusing on Prizren’s modern history. In her presentation, Romi will focus on the required infrastructure for the constitution of archives in the institutional contexts. Discussing the notion of the archive, she will explain the reasons behind archiving and its public use. She will elaborate on processes such as collecting, classification and description, digitization and access policies at SALT Research. Through SALT’s selected research projects, she will examin various methods and the critical importance of archives in the interpretation of art history.
The realization of the talk was made possible with the support of the Goethe-Institut and other partners.
In addition to managing the library Sezin Romi carries out the necessary processes for the research and access of art archives at SALT Research. She was also involved in the research and visualization of SALT’s projects It was a time of conversation (2012-2013), From England with Love, İsmail Saray(2014-2015), Idealist School, Productive Studio (2018), and History of the Painting and Sculpture Museums Association (2022). Having collaborated in the research processes of SALT’s various e-publications, Romi is the co-editor of İsmail Saray (2018) publication.
About SALT and SALT Research
SALT is a not-for-profit cultural institution in public service, engaging in research, exhibitions, publications, web projects, conferences, and other public programs in Turkey. SALT’s programs are distributed at SALT Galata and SALT Beyoğlu buildings in Istanbul. The institution works in the intersections of different disciplines such as visual practices, the built environment, social life, and economic history.SALT Research comprises a specialized library and an archive of physical and digital sources and documents on visual practices, the built environment, social life and economic history. As part of a long-term commitment to digitizing resources at SALT Research, the institution makes documents and sources universally available via saltresearch.org together with the catalog of local access publications.
Lumbardhi Foundation has the pleasure to confirm the continuation of the partnership with the Kosovo Privatisation Agency for the use of Lumbardhi Cinema during 2022.
Established after the civic Initiative for the Protection of Lumbardhi Cinema and the registering of the cinema as a heritage site under temporary protection, this partnership has paved the way for the improvement of the cinema's infrastructure and the preservation of its heritage values. Its usage by over 160 institutions and informal groups which hosted over 100,000 visitors and users, proved the need for its public ownership and its complete revitalisation, to offer a sustainable and long-term future for this institution that was one of the main centers of the social life of Prizren for 70 years.
Lumbardhi Foundation expresses its gratitude to the management of KPA and its responsible officials in Prizren for their understanding and cooperation through these eight years of commitment to fully revive the cinema. In this occasion, we would like to call upon the Municipality of Prizren, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Administration of Local Government, as well as the Office of the Prime Minister to conclude the property transfer and cooperate with stakeholders from the civil society to bring a celebratory ending to this long overdue process.
Between December 13-14, Kino Jusuf Gërvalla in Peja hosted the conference "Public Civic Partnership for Reforming Cultural Governance in Kosovo" organized by Anibar within the project "Cultural Spaces of Kosovo".
The project was launched in 2019 as a continuation of previous collaborations between Anibar, Lumbardhi Foundation and Kooperativa - Regionalna platforma za kulturu (Regional Platform for Culture). During four years, the project built a sustainable format for supporting collaborative platforms and networks, the development of programs and conditions for the functioning of cultural spaces in Kosovo, as well as the generation and sharing of knowledge on these matters.
The conference brought together public officials, civil society representatives and actors from the regional independent cultural scene to discuss issues about public financing of culture, revival and governance of cultural spaces and principles of collaboration. Through various discussions and workshops, participants reflected on the current situation of the independent scene and future prospects, while presenting different applications of public-civic cooperation in local and central policies of culture as means of creating new models of institutions and advancing civic participation.
"Cultural Spaces of Kosovo" is a four-year project implemented by Anibar in cooperation with Lumbardhi Foundation, 7 Arte and Pogon, with the finantial support of the European Union Office in Kosovo.
Lumbardhi Foundation in collaboration with Protocinema is pleased to have screened “Permanent Spring, Delayed Bloom”, a video program curated by Aslı Seven.
This is a one-hour program of selected single-channel videos that premiered in Istanbul in June 2021, and then travelled to additional venues worldwide.
The video program showcased works by Sofia Gallisa Muriente, Ahmet Öğüt, Deniz Tortum & Kathryn Hamilton, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Emre Hüner and Minia Biabiany that reflect on environments built as "scapes" - landscape, cyberscape, mindscape, mobilizing multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Each film in its own unique texture of language, narrative and technique, comments on our severed relationship to land, climate and bios as permeated by narrative and information technologies, and on the entanglement of labor and entertainment in our global extractivist context. The films in the program jointly emphasize the semiotic agency of tools as sensory, cognitive and physical extensions of humans in fabricating the world we inhabit. Beyond providing a diagnosis about the end of our current world, they ask the question of what is to come, and what are we to make of all the past worlds that have come to an end?
Artist & Artworks List, in order of appearance:
Sofia Gallisa Muriente, Asimilar y Destruir II, 2020, 6'35"
Ahmet Öğüt, Worker's Ordinary Day, 2019, 3'18"
Deniz Tortum & Kathryn Hamilton, ARK, 2020, 13'11"
Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Infinite Nectar, 2020, 10'55"
Emre Hüner, The Underwater Dig, 2019, 12'
Minia Biabiany, Pawol se van, 2020, 11'46"
The screening took place on 23, 24 and 26 October, in two time slots, at 12:00 and 18:00, at Kino Lumbardhi.
The realization of this program has been supported by Raiffeisen Bank in Kosovo.
Lumbardhi Foundation is excited to be part of the latest publication by Archive Books!
„Not Fully Human, Not Human at All“ centers on a variety of texts, ranging from critical essays, to transcripts of public discussions, to artist texts that focus on artistic and discursive responses to processes of dehumanization that are taking place in Europe. This is situated alongside documentation of the project’s public outcomes at Kunstverein in Hamburg (Germany), Lumbardhi Foundation (Prizren, Kosovo), Kunsthalle Lissabon and Hangar (Lisbon, Portugal), Netwerk Aalst (Aalst, Belgium), and Kadist (Paris, France).
By bringing together a variety of these artistic and cultural positions, the publication gives examples of how dehumanization might be evaluated, critically unpacked—or even overcome—while ultimately proposing that cultural institutions of Europe have a certain political responsibility to respond to processes of dehumanization.
Edited by Bettina Steinbrügge (Kunstverein in Hamburg) and Émilie Villez (KADIST)
Managing editor: Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez and Nicholas Tammens
Graphic: Charlotte Rhode
Distribution: Archive Books
With contributions by: Arely Amaut, Saddie Choua, Andreja Dugandžić, Ibro Hasanović, Jelena Jureša, Kaltrina Krasniqi, Raquel Lima, Olivier Marbouef, Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, João Mourão, Arlette-Louise Ndakoze, Daniela Ortiz, Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Jelena Petrović, Lala Rašćić, Ares Shporta, Luís Silva, Bettina Steinbrügge, Nora Sternfeld, Pieternel, Vermoortel, Francisco Godoy Vega, Emilie Villez, Zairong Xiang
With works by: Saddie Choua, Valentina Desideri , Denise Ferreira da Silva , Arely Amaut, Nilbar Güreş, Ibro Hasanović, Jelena Jureša, Doruntina Kastrati, Kaltrina Krasniqi, Olivier Marboeuf, Pedro Neves Marques, Christian Nyampeta, Daniela Ortiz, Monira Al Qadiri and Lala Raščić