During the periods of repression, art moved to cafes. However, at the peak of tension, courage was enough and a gallery was opened. In 1997, the “Dodona Gallery” was opened with the initiative of several artists led by Alisa Canaj-Maliqi. Together with the theater of the same name, it became a cult object of artistic resistance. Canaj-Maliqi returns to the gallery to document the two-year activity of the institution, which has an important place not only in the collective memory but also in the continuity of visual arts in these regions.
While the Albanian majority in Kosovo lived a parallel life under the violent practices of the Slobodan Milosevic regime in the 90s, artists also became part of the resistance. Cafe-galleries such as “Hani i 2 Robertëve” were places where cultural life flourished.
However, in 1997, with the initiative of several artists led by architect Alisa Canaj-Maliqi, the "Dodona" gallery was founded, which operated until March 1999. The most famous visual artists of the time, together with young creatives and students, held exhibitions in this place, which was much more than an ordinary gallery. Named after the city's theater "Dodona", the Gallery and the Theater were to become points of artistic resistance against the still existing power of Yugoslavia.
However, there were also somewhat different views regarding the parallel Albanian institutions of the period.
The work "Dodona Gallery 1997-1999" by writer Alisa Canaj-Maliqi, which was presented on Tuesday evening at the "Dukagjini" bookstore in Pristina, summarizes the exhibitions organized in these three years, the texts related to these events and the story of the founders. The gallery's Artistic Board includes art critic Shkëlzen Maliqi, artist and university lecturer Mehmet Behluli and actor and university lecturer Faruk Begolli. Begolli has also been the director of the "Dodona" Theatre since 1993.
The Open Society Foundation will be the financial supporter of the gallery's opening. According to the gallery director, the purpose of establishing "Dodona" was to present visual art creativity with certain criteria as a center supporting quality art and new trends in Kosovar art. The gallery opened in February 1997 with a solo exhibition by famous sculptor Agim Çavdarbaşa, while famous artists would also exhibit their works there.
The book is adapted from the book "Dodona Decade" published in 2002. With the organization of numerous exhibitions, the venue will become a multi-generational center where various topics will be discussed.
Speaking at the book's launch, visual artist Mehmet Behluli said that the 90s were very difficult.
"We somehow challenged ourselves, time, the environment, power and even, I think, the parallel power that was trying to tell us what to do and how to do it." "We tried to bring a new breath," he said. He showed that the Gallery was created with great effort as Alisa Canaj-Maliqi's idea, but most of the artists supported the idea.
"It became much more than a Gallery for us." As the idea developed, the Gallery was also adopted by our important artists. We left the cafes and entered a gallery. 'Dodona' was the center where we came together and started discussing. There were book launches and exhibitions. "For us, it was really a mosque, a church," Behluli said.
Art historian and curator Vesa Sahatçiu said that this publication filled the gap in knowledge about what was happening in art in Kosovo in the 1990s.
"This is a necessary innovation. "There is very valuable information about the various exhibitions, collective exhibitions and perspective exhibitions that were the first signs of the beginning of a new journey of conceptual art in the art scene in Kosovo," he said.
Literary critic and writer Lura Limani said that the Gallery was an integral part of the cultural resistance in Kosovo at the time. She says that a certain social tension is documented through the interviews and articles published in the book.
"The artists who exhibited in the Dodona Gallery became a new spirit and tendency of what was happening in Europe. Your articles describe that period very well," she said.
The author of the book, Alisa Canaj-Maliqi, said that the material in question has been collected for the last 20 years. She explained that there were many difficulties in opening a gallery at that time.
"The Gallery became a place that many famous names, such as Vanessa Redgrave, visited, and even went beyond the borders of Kosovo," she said. The exhibition of Rudina Xhaferi caused a great outrage among some professors, who asked, "What are these jewels?", said the professor.
"It was the most visited exhibition." Canaj-Maliqi, who worked as a set and costume designer at the "Dodona" theater at the time, said, "Later, the idea of offering it to young students came up." The Gallery, together with the Theater, operated in the 90s under the name of a private organization or enterprise named Faruk Begolli. Begolli's company registered in Belgrade was called "Film, Theater, Design" (FTD). The "Dodona" theater operated thanks to the contract that this enterprise had with the violent Serbian administration of the building. The "Dodona" Theater was founded on November 12, 1986 by the decision of the Working Group of the Pristina Municipal Council. A year later, it would be called the "Dodona" Youth, Children and Puppet Theater. However, the Theater and later the Gallery would become a separate legal entity. The theater and gallery, located in private homes, operated until the spring of 1999, when Serbian forces deported about a million Kosovars due to NATO bombing. In the 1990s, the only institutions or spaces for Albanians to develop their cultural life in the capital were cafe-galleries and initiatives such as the "Dodona" gallery.
source: https://www.koha.net/tr/kulture/galeria-dodona-1997-1999-per-hapesiren-e-rezistences-artistike