Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography.
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Doruntina Kastrati, RKS
Ring the bells my land, 2017/22, © Doruntina Kastrati. Photo © Manifesta 14 Prishtina / Majlinda Hoxha.
As life on Earth grows more precarious, there has been a good deal of speculation on moving to Mars – so much so that Doruntina Kastrati’s desolate rocky landscape might first invoke the surface of the red planet.
Yet upon entering her environment, populated only by grazing goat-like creatures and a lonely satellite dish, the crunch of rubble underfoot and the sight of the city through the windows swiftly return the viewer to some post-human version of our own planet.
It is an “island of abandonment” not unlike many parts of Prishtina, the Grand Hotel itself being one of them. In her recent sculptures, installations, environments and films Kastrati has focused considerable attention on the transformation of the city. Her post-human environments in particular invite us to reflect on urban development and decay – and our complicity in the processes that drive them.