Yll Rugova, Hapësira Motrat, and former vice-minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Kosova.

“Names which are missing”

(Explanation: Artworks were exhibited in an old building where the painting was hanged on the left side past the entrance. There was no light where the installation was exhibited so each visitor had to turn on his or her own light in order to see the artwork.)

The apron shields the body and clothes from the inevitable kitchen splash that comes from cooking. While exploiting the woman-in-the-kitchen stereotype, the apron becomes the only protection for the woman’s body. Dishes and other items attached there give the impression that the shielding was successful in this part of the body. But, given that the whole material is in the shape of the apron, then one can wonder what happens with the other parts where there is no shield.

This work reminds us of the domestic violence against women as a continuing phenomenon in the Albanian society. The artwork, which constitutes of dishes and other kitchen items, valorizes on earlier works of feminist authors such as Yayoi Kusama, who as part of the Aggreations, in 1963, made “women’s” objects non-functional by deforming and turning them into artworks (see Ironing Board, 1963). In a similar fashion, it reminds us of the works of Joana Vasconcelos with giant sculptures made out of home dishes.

But as much as one could consider Arianit’s artwork as a tribute to earlier artists, it nevertheless differs in the way how dishes are used for this artistic exhibition. Here, the dishes and the apron are what is left from an eventual relationship of a woman with her reality. The woman is not there because her reality has dissolved. It is as if what we see here is what has remained after an act, making us all witnesses to a crime scene.