SPÄTWERK

SPÄTWERK surveys works from 2003 to 2023. Spanning photography, video, painting, installation, poster and text-based pieces to various forms of participatory social practice, the works testify to the continuities and ruptures, the periods of participation and withdrawal and above all the tension between thought and action that characterize Maliqi’s practice. Older, well-known works are displayed alongside newer ones in a continuous flow on the first floor of the gallery. The artworks explore the historical, social, cultural, and political contexts in which they were created. At the same time, they thoughtfully question the history and nature of contemporary art and the social and political aspects of the art world.

Dren Maliqi – Spätwerk is conceived as a critical reflection upon this ongoing thought process. Its German subtitle was chosen by the artist as a self-ironic allusion to the German philosophical and art-historical tradition. Seen through the lens of the present, the lines between early and late begin to blur. Might one think of even the earliest works as somehow being late: late in time, late in history, late in coming back to the fore of the artist’s mind? What new perspectives can be gained from thinking of the works in such terms? 

By considering the works within the temporal, social, and artistic contexts of their creation, the exhibition explores the scope of conceptual and social practice art, specifically the notion of ‘living as form’ in contemporary Kosovo. Overall, the presentation of this expanded form of artistic practice seeks to challenge the current artistic discourse in Kosovo regarding what constitutes artistic practice and the role such practice might play in shaping and transforming society.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a symposium to be held on 18/19 October 2024. Entitled No! On the Politics and Aesthetics of Refusal, it takes as its point of departure the dynamic of refusal and withdrawal that Maliqi shares with artists and activists from manifold cultural contexts since the beginnings of modernity. The symposium brings together internationally renowned thinkers, writers, historians, artists and activists to discuss the urge to say no, to disengage, to resist, to renounce when a situation becomes untenable.

A comprehensive, bilingual catalogue designed by Bardhi Haliti will be released during the symposium. It features color illustrations of the artworks along with texts by Catherine Nichols, Sezgin Boynik and Shkelzen Maliqi, as well as a curatorial interview with the artist.