On the 27th of October, 144 female artists from Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and the Visegrad Group countries – the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, will join the Secondary Archive project. The platform shows the works of female artists from the region of Central and Eastern Europe, mainly by creating space for first-person statements by female artists. The October edition was created thanks to the cooperation of the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation with international partners – Tirana Art Lab (Albania), MeetFactory (Czech Republic), Easttopics (Hungary), Oral History Initative (Kosovo), Center for Cultural Decontamination (Serbia), Björsanova (Slovakia) and thanks to the support of the International Visegrad Fund. After its inauguration on 27th of October, the archive will bring together nearly 500 female artists and 9 international partners, making it one of the largest online archives of women’s art from the Central and Eastern Europe region.
After a very fruitful year with the launch of the Ukrainian and Belarusian artists in February and exhibition at the Manifesta 14 Biennale, it is time to celebrate the launch of yet another, pressingly important expansion in the Balkan region!
The region on which the Secondary Archive focuses this time is yet another one with invariably fresh scars from political conflicts, that strongly affect women’s art practices. The traces of the war that torn apart the former Yugoslavia and led to its disintegration are still noticeable, and the echoes of the conflict can still be heard today on particular borders. National identity, belonging, but also the identity of a woman requires constant dynamic reinterpretation. As Valentina Bonizzi says in her essay “A secondary calendar for a secondary archive”, soon available on the Secondary Archive platform – “(…) archives begin to appear when we feel an urgent need to name them”. Secondary Archive is about creating spaces where female artists’ voices can resound and tell stories of their own selves, beyond the hierarchy of patriarchal structures, beyond the conflicts and those who silence them.
The statements of female artists from Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, as well as new critical essays by local curators will be available from the 27rd of October at secondaryarchive.org
The discussion dedicated to the launch of the project will be livestreamed on Facebook.
Date: 27rd of October.
Time: 6 pm CET / 7 pm EET
SECONDARY ARCHIVE – СOLOFON
Project leader: Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation
Partners: Tirana Art Lab (Albania), MeetFactory (Czech Republic), Easttopics (Hungary), Oral History Initiative (Kosovo), Center for Cultural Decontamination (Serbia), Björnsonova (Slovakia).
Project coordinator: Paulina Bijoch, Ewa Mielczarek
Project curator (Poland): Bogna Stefańska
Production support: Iga Maria Szczepańska, Magdalena Majewska, Asia Tsisar
Project design and identification: Marcel Kaczmarek
Website developers: Aleksandra Gajda
ALBANIA
Partner: Tirana Art Lab
Project coordinators: Adela Demetja
Curatorial team: Adela Demetja, Erida Bendo and Jiří Gruber
Translations: Pavjo Gjini and Koço Bendo
Proofreading (English): Fjollë Bunjaku
Proofreading (Albanian): Diana Malaj
Website edition: Erida Bendo and Adela Demetja
KOSOVO
Partner: Oral History Initiative
Project coordinators: Renea Begolli
Curatorial team: Renea Begolli and Erëmirë Krasniqi
Translations: Blerton Ajeti and Donjet Behluli
Proofreading (English): Fjollë Bunjaku and Jakob Weizman
Website edition: Renea Begolli
SERBIA
Partner: Center for Cultural Decontamination
Project coordinators: Dejan Vasić
Curatorial team: Mirjana Dragosavljević, Simona Ognjanović, Dejan Vasić and Jelena Vesić
Translations: Dušan Grlja, Luna Đorđević and Vojislava Jovanović
Proofreading (English): Mark Brogan
Proofreading (Serbian): Dušan Grlja and Aleksandra Sekulić
CZECH REPUBLIC
Partner: MeetFactory o.p.s
Project coordinators: Daniela Šiandorová, Piotr Sikora
Curatorial team:Tereza Porybná, Anežka Rucká, Eva Skopalová, Daniela Šiandorová
Translations: Lucia Kolouchová, Petr Uram
Proofreading (Czech): Zuzana Kolouchová
Website edition: Daniela Šiandorová
HUNGARY
Partner: Easttopics
Project coordinators: Róna Kopeczky
Curatorial team: Kata Balázs, Zsófia Farkas, Fruzsina Kigyós, Sára Vilma Nagy, Viktória Popovics, Andrea Soós
Translations: Róna Kopeczky, Andrea Soós
Proofreading (Hungarian): Kata Balázs, Róna Kopeczky, Andrea Soós, Viktória Popovics
Website edition: Róna Kopeczky
Special thanks: Fruzsina Kigyós, Alexandra Nagy
SLOVAKIA
Partner: björnsonova
Project coordinators: Lucia Kvočáková
Curatorial team: Miroslava Urbanová
Translations: Katarína Orlovská
Proofreading (Slovakia): Lucia Kvočáková
Website edition: Lucia Kvočáková
The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
