Launch Event | Elena Gallina, Çiknia jonë: Our Girlhood

Elena Gallina is a 2019 Rhodes Scholar and the Rhodes Trust's very first Artist in Residence.

For this residency Elena Gallina has focussed on the Kosovar practice of collecting and trading paper napkins. This goes as far back as the 60’s and is a dying tradition. The divided city of Mitrovica is the focal point of the exhibition. The artist also travelled to Peja, Prishtina and Prizren, interviewing women from 17 to 89 years old.

Çiknia jonë explores changes before and after war, alongside intergenerational circles of girlhood based in the divided city of Mitrovica. It is a celebration through photography and textiles of the colour and joy of women, and the significance of feminine love in difficult circumstances.