Performance & solo exhibition
Resulting video, 16:17mins
A visual map of touch is created in reference to the mapping of histories, in a building with a debated Jewish past. This performance took place in the former Boxing Club of Pristina, Kosovo, which is said to have once belonged to the Jewish Community of Pristina. There are few historical archives that can be found concerning the Jewish past of Pristina, as well as all of Kosovo, as much was relocated, displaced, and/ or lost during the Kosovo War (1999). Given the lack of historical records, the artist could conduct research regarding this building exclusively through the collection of oral history. Most historical accounts contradict one another. The creation of a visual map of touch in this performance is a reference to the absence of factual maps of the region’s history.
Action Boxing Club was realized in cooperation with Stacion Center for Contemporary Art and the U.S. Embassy of Kosovo. The production is part of Katz’s work >Spaced Memory< (2011-present), an ongoing project that addresses the topics of memory, postmemory, and absence at locations of historical erasure in the Balkans.
Curated by Albert Heta
Photography: Majlinda Hoxha
Press release available here