gjon mili int'l exhibition of photography & moving image

The National Gallery of Kosovo is delighted to share the open call for the 17th edition of the Gjon Mili International Exhibition of Photography and Moving Image. Named after the renowned Albanian-American photographer Gjon Mili, this exhibition has been a cornerstone in the development of the medium of photography in the country since its first edition in 2001. Initially an annual exhibition, it was reconceptualized as a biennale in 2012. We are excited to revive this exhibition, on pause since the pandemic, with a renewed concept and structure. The exhibition will now focus on time-based media, encompassing photographic, filmic, and sonic practices as a way of reflecting the connections between these media, and expanding the possibilities of storytelling.

Titled She who starts the song…, this edition will be curated by Valentine Umansky, Curator, International Art at Tate in London, and is set to open on January 23, 2025. Taking as a jumping off point the practice of tepsija, the exhibition reflects on the inherited gestures, often passed on from mother to daughter, which connect our current generations to those of our past. In so doing, it reconsiders the role of photography, moving-images, and sonic practices, as unique vehicles of inter-generational genealogies and archives of memory. Deliberately pointing to an unknown female singer, it will also foreground research that considers gendered practices, their traditions, and the ways they are currently subverted.

To quote filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha and her text “Grandma’s Story” (Woman, Native, Other, 1989), the exhibition centers the “Diseuse, Thought-Woman, Spider Woman, griotte, storytalker, fortune-teller, witch.” “If you have the patience to listen, she will take delight in relating it to you.”

She who starts the song… will feature a selection of invited artists, alongside those selected via this open call. For the first time, the call will extend to applications from artists based in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia.