Description
Elena Gallina is a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford 2019-2022. She is the first Artist in Residence in what the Rhodes Trust hopes will become a well-established and innovative programme.
Join us on 29 February at Rhodes House for the launch of her exhibition entitled 'Çiknia jonë: Our Girlhood’.
For this residency Elena Gallina has focussed on the Kosovar practice of collecting and trading paper napkins. The divided city of Mitrovica is the focal point of the exhibition. The artist also travelled to Peja, Prishtina and Prizren, interviewing women ranging from aged 17 to 89 years old. This practice goes as far back as the 60’s and is a dying tradition. Çiknia jonë explores the changes in this practise 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.