“Ukrainian puts art in Kosovo’s ‘open wound'” Puls 24 on Stanislava Pinchuk

2 Aug 2022

In addition to projects in the capital Prishtina, Manifesta 14, brings art to the most troubling focal point in Kosovo: In the center of ethnically divided Mitrovica, the Ukrainian artist Stanislava Pinchuk “symbolically lowered the well-known partisan monument by Bogdan Bogdanović” comments Puls 24, a news channel in Austria.

Pinchuk’s massive steel installation titled Europe Without Monuments is said to be “the most politically relevant work of the 14th edition”. The three large-format metal frames with minimalist seating are intended to encourage the residents of both the Albanian-south and Serbian-north to linger and engage in dialogues.

Europe Without Monuments is a playground and pavilion; an artwork placed in the middle of the Bar river by Mitrovica’s New Bridge. Its aforementioned three forms are taken at scale from the city’s iconic concrete Monument to Fallen Miners built by architect Bogdanović commemorating the unified revolt of Albanian and Serb workers from the Trepča mine against Nazi occupation of the city.

Image: Stanislava Pinchuk, Europe Without Monuments, 2022, steel & zinc, textile, acrylic paint and wood | Photography by Marcello Maranzan