Artist-in-Residence

Work Presentation by Yll Xhaferi at Projektraum Labor

This year, the visual artist Yll Xhaferi is participating in Kino Kosova’s Residency Program. The starting point of his artistic exploration during his stay in Bern was a conversation with a taxi driver on the way to Pristina Airport. This encounter led to a multi-layered engagement with the complexity of identity, diaspora, and representation. At the center of the works created are both personal and borrowed memories, perceptions and expectations, as well as stereotypical notions of beauty and labor, which Xhaferi embeds in playful narratives of pride, vulnerability, and uprootedness. In his mixed media works, he relies on a visual language of spatial configuration, physical and symbolic accessibility, (especially Swiss) regulatory frameworks, and the universal language of signage.

The results of this artistic exploration will be presented during the festival at Projektraum Labor. In addition, during his stay in Bern, Xhaferi developed a set of art postcards and, in collaboration with Kino Kosova, designed this year’s festival T-shirts and tote bags.

In cooperation with Residency.ch, Kino Kosova enables young, emerging Kosovar artists to deepen their artistic practice during a two-month stay in Switzerland and to connect with the vibrant cultural scene in Bern. The Artist-in-Residence program ties into the central principle of the festival: to open up new perspectives through artistic creation, to encourage exchange and dialogue, and to serve as a bridge between different cultural scenes.

Biography

Yll Xhaferi is a visual artist born in Pristina. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Pristina, where he now teaches. As an independent artist, he explores various artistic forms as a means of reflection through his art. He has worked in different visual media, including painting and installation (with elements of video performance).
Xhaferi’s works address sensitive issues in a country that has historically undergone various brutal social and ideological transitions.