Group Exhibition: Landscapes of Repair at Centre for Narrative Practice

Landscapes of Repair is a collaborative project between researchers from the University of Sheffield and forumZFD, in cooperation with Kosovo artists, researchers, cultural workers and civil society activists on post-traumatic landscapes. Since 2021, Landscapes of Repair has established a collaborative platform on post-traumatic place-making and the construction, availability and transformation of public space within Kosovo and the region. This process involved  Kosovo and international researchers, civil society actors, cultural workers and artists which contributed to a 2-day symposium, a publication, collecting soundscapes of memorial sides and this exhibition.

The Landscapes of Repair exhibition examines current concepts of space creation and memorialisation practices in Kosovo and the Western Balkans. The exhibition invites us to consider the spatial as a discursive space of past traumas which project into the present and at the same time discuss memorialisation practices as a process of (re-)appropriation of public spaces and (un-)learning memorialisation narratives and processes. The exhibition focuses particularly on how creative practices, community interventions and processes of memorialisation might contribute to repairing landscapes scarred by trauma. The exhibition critically reflects on the methodologies and tools of researchers, artists, civil society actors and local communities as a means of building Landscapes of Repair a broad forum for trauma-informed reflection and praxis with regard to the repair and re-appropriation of public space in post-conflict Kosovo.

It is from this vantage point, the Landscapes of Repair exhibition responds to the following questions: How are post-conflict landscapes implicated in processes of memorialisation practices and repair in Kosovo? What is the visible and invisible impact of conflict and trauma on the built environment, architecture and public places? What does repair look like in the post-traumatic landscapes of Kosovo and the Western Balkans? What are the possibilities afforded by creative practice to critically engage these places in the present?