Deborah Schamoni

Two large-scale sculptural installations occupy Flaka Haliti’s showrooms; at the centre of each is an incandescent blue robot, their postures strikingly human. They have been cobbled together from numerous kinds of objects: tubes, filters, cooling coils, light bulbs, screw threads, treadles, perfo- rated metal plates, all hidden under a unifying coat of paint. These items share the same history: they all stem from the many KFOR (NATO-led Kosovo Force) military camps, long since abandoned. In a gesture of a demilitarization through an aesthetic act, Haliti assembles the discarded building blocks of a peace process into friendly mechanical beings devoted to an unfamiliar occupation: idleness. Their casual demeanour signals relaxation, but also purposelessness. ‘Mission completed?’ seems to bethe question they pose and leave unanswered. The wings hovering above them, reminiscent of a pair of lungs as well as the topography and borders of a country, underscore their role as saviours of the present. Encapsu- lated in their own space, their duty as peacemakers seems to consist of rather being physically present, than actively engaged.

2016 Nominees
Pauline Curnier Jardin, Simon Fujiwara, Katja Novitskova, Flaka Haliti

The jury consisted of: Annie Fletcher (Director of IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin), Anna-Catharina Gebbers (Curator at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Udo Kittelmann (Director of Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Philippe Vergne (Director of Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto) and Theodora Vischer (Senior Curator of Fondation Beyeler, Basel).

Text: Hamburger Bahnhof
Photos: Stefan Korte, Mathias Voelzke