Alban Muja
Bereich: Bildende Kunst, Film
Key Facts
Nationalität
KosovoBereich
Bildende Kunst, FilmWohnort
PrištinaEmpfehlende Institution
BMEIAZeitraum
Juni 2016 - Juni 2016Alban Muja (born 1980) is a Kosovo based visual artist and filmmaker. He completed his BA and MA at Academy of Fine Arts at University of Prishtina.
Mostly influenced by the social, political and economical transformation processes in wider surrounding region, he investigates history and socio-political themes and links them to his position in Kosovo today.
His works cover a wide range of media including video installation, short film, documentary film, drawings, paintings, photographs and performance which have been exhibited extensively in various festivals, art fairs, group and solo exhibitions including Trieste Contemporanea, Trieste Italy ; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rijeka, Croatia; Institute for Contemporary Art, Zagreb Croatia, Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia; The National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtina, Kosovo; Miza Galery, Tirana, Albania; Center for Contemporary Art ‘Station’, Prishtina, Kosovo; Myymala2 Gallery, Helsinki, Finland; UnionDocs, New York, USA; Able Kulturverein, Berlin, Germany; Siz Gallery, Rijeka, Croatia; Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, USA, Budapest Galery and Kiscell Museum, Budapest, Hungary, 'Mardin Biennle' ‘2nd Biennial of Contemporary Art in the Atomic shelter in Konjic, BH.; ‘Mediterranean – Arrivals and Departure’ Ancona, Italy ; “Qui Vive?” Moscow International Biennale, Moscow Russia ; 28th Ljubljana Graphic Biennale, Slovenia ; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia ; Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava Slovakia; Museum of Contemporary art of Vojvodina; 1st International Tehran Biennale; Columbia University, New York, USA; Berlinale’ 60 film festival, Berlin, Germany; Delaware Contemporary Center for Arts, USA; VOLTA 5, Basel, Switzerland; Cyberfest, St Petersburg, Russia; 53rd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany; Open Space, Vienna, Austria; Mestna Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia., NGBK, Berlin, Germany; Brot Kunsthalle, Vienna, Austria; ARTspace Media Art, New York, USA ; Göteborg Museum of Art; Cetinje Biennale 5; Nova Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia ect. Muja attended various residencies and received number of fellowships: Tobačna 001 residency/ City Museum Ljubljana Slovenia; Apartment Project residency Istanbul Turkey; Young visual art award at ISCP Residency, New York, USA; ARTSLINK Residency, New York; KulturKontakt Residency, Vienna, Austria; Backyard International Artist Residency, Kuda-Center for New Media Novi Sad, Serbia; International Artist and Writer Residency, Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico, USA; Braziers International Artist Residency, Braziers Park, OxfordShire, England.
More information about the artist and his projects you can find at: <link http: albanmuja.blogspot.com>albanmuja.blogspot.com
<link http: albanmuja.blogspot.com>albanmuja.blogspot.com
This residency will be an extraordinary possibility to confront myself with a reality, which I can say I did confront myself in the past and to be able to share my new ideas and work on a new level and new work environment.
Vienna for me was always a stop and possibility for artists of the region where I come from. Most of my projects usually deal with political, economical and social transformation, so I believe this is an important moment for myself to see things from a distance and this will be my focus during the residency.
During my artist residency in Q21, MuseumsQuartier, I did work in two research-project, in one of them I'm already working. Here you have a bit of description of concept of the project :
Borders without Borders ( working title)
During my residency I did travel form Vienna( Austria) in few neighbor countries as research for the project “Borders without Borders” which will include 26 photos of 26 border buildings of 26 EU Schengen states, including two Austrian borders.
Today, these buildings remain “abandoned,” similarly to how border divisions among EU states have seized to exist. Nevertheless, as they continue in physical presence, reminding us of a past separation that no longer exists, these buildings also raise questions to what other function they can have or play in the future.
The artist himself comes from a place where functional border buildings still exist, and freedom of movement is restricted. The artist has chosen to photograph the abandoned border buildings in EU member states and trigger questions about the veracity of the existence or in-existence of borders between these states - the majority of which share a past, often a conflictual one, but today enjoy freedom of movement with one another.
Project Execution
Knowing the importance assigned to borders, not just the ones in Europe, I believe that this project is suitable to be shown not only in the Balkans and EU but also in other parts of the world, triggering similar memories and discussions for audiences all around.