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GPKT Activity Update 16

GPKT Youth Art Exhibition May 2005

Following the proposal for art activities at the January GPKT Youth Council meeting, the proposal was taken up by Shkurte Haliti of NGO ‘Vizioni’ in Presevo, and in early April preparations began for a youth art exhibition for the micro-region. 12 young artists were recruited from the four GPKT municipalities, seven from Presevo, two from Trgoviste, two from Gjilan/Gnjilane and two from Kumanovo: Betim Shabani, Shkurte Haliti, Qendrim Rexhepi, Mirvete Halimi, Sadie Ademi, Arijana Stankovic and Sevxhane Fejzullahu from Presevo; Emine Nuhiu and Magdalena Velickovic from Kumanovo; Nikola Tasic and Vladimir Nedeljkovic from Trgoviste; and Flaka Ibrahimi and Arben Ramadani from Gjilan/Gnjilane.

With EWI’s financial support for paint and materials, around 30 pictures were displayed: the majority were oil on canvas, with one graphite sketch and also several sculpture pieces from the artists’ previous work. The young artists met for a co-ordination meeting in Presevo in late April, at which they decided on a common theme for the exhibition – ‘Youth Bridges’, the same title as the GPKT Youth Newsletter. The artists then worked for around two weeks on their pictures, returning them to Presevo for the opening of the GPKT Youth Art Exhibition on the 7th May.
 

The exhibition was held in Café ‘Elita’, a large café bar popular with young people in Presevo, and attracted a large crowd for the official opening on Saturday. The young organisers from Presevo opened the event, and with municipal and EWI representatives presented the exhibition to the audience and journalists from RTV Presevo, who filmed the event. A video presentation and brochure of the exhibition were also prepared, and a post-graduate art student from Presevo presented a critique of the pieces displayed, noting the energy in the paintings and tendency towards abstract images to represent the theme.

This was the first art exhibition in Presevo since 1999, and many commented that it was very positive that the exhibits included multi-ethnic art works and had been implemented on the initiative of GPKT youth volunteers from Presevo, and with minimal organisational support from EWI staff.
 

To mark the first night of the exhibition, and following on from the GPKT Youth Council meeting in Presevo that day, the volunteers organized a GPKT Youth Party that evening in Café ‘Elita’. With EWI support, music was provided by a live band covering English-language classic hits: the band itself was also cross-border, including musicians from both Presevo and Tetovo. The party was open to young people from Presevo as well as GPKT Youth Council members, and attracted over 100 youth from the different countries and ethnic groups of the micro-region.

The exhibition will stay in place for public viewing for the next two or three weeks, and received a great deal of media attention – gaining coverage from not just local Presevo television and radio stations, but also Kosovo-wide stations such as Radio Kosova Ilir and newspapers Pavaresia and Zeri.

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