January 23–March 30, 2025
Opening January 23, 2025 @ 19h
National Gallery of Kosovo
Prishtina
Artists: Ivana Basić, Kristina Benjocki, Semâ Bekirović, Angela Blažanović, Željka Blakšić AKA Gita Blak, Vera Hadzhiyska, Majlinda Hoxha, Astrit Ismaili, Saodat Ismailova, Šejla Kamerić, Lebohang Kganye, Ana Likar, Glorija Lizde, Maria Mavropoulou, Klodiana Millona & Endi Tupja, Joanna Piotrowska, Stanislava Pinchuk, Iva Radivojević, Lala Raščić, Simon Shiroka, Huda Takriti, and Clarissa Tossin
Curator: Valentine Umansky
The exhibition takes its inspiration from tepsijanje, a traditional musical practice rooted in Kosovo, performed largely by women. This unique form combines vocal melodies with the rhythmic spinning of a copper pan (tepsija). Here, tepsijanje becomes a metaphor for inherited gestures—passed from mother to daughter—that bridge generations with those of the past. Centred on an unnamed female singer, the exhibition explores gendered traditions and their ongoing subversion, examining photography, moving images, and sonic practices as powerful mediums and archives of intergenerational narratives.
The exhibition pays homage to filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha who, in Woman, Native, Other, described the diseuse —the storyteller, thought-woman, griotte, and fortune-teller—as someone whose truths unfold in time. “If you have the patience to listen, she will take delight in relating it to you.” The works in She Who Starts the Song… embody these archetypes, inviting audiences to engage with the ancestral stories shared by grandmothers.
MORE ON THE GJON MILI INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION
Work in show POČIMALJA …she who starts the song…
photo: Agon Dana
Lala Raščić 