My Mobility Was Forced Upon Me

Driton Hajredini

In 1992, when I decided to leave Kosovo, it was not my life that was threatened, it was my personality.

The University of Prishtina was closed down for political reasons. Anyone who wanted to pursue university studies had to either go abroad or study in secrecy with professors who, together with other volunteers, made their private homes available for study. The best place to study art was in Germany. So I packed as many pictures (70 x 50 cm) as I could fit into my suitcase and off I went to Germany. The only way to stay in Germany for a considerable period of time was to apply for asylum. After several unsuccessful attempts to study art in Germany, I decided to go back to Kosovo and continue my studies there. For crisis regions such as the Balkans, or any other place where art does not have the status it deserves, mobility programmes play a very important role. At certain times they function as the only connection between West and East or, to be more precise, as a gateway to the outside world. In post-war periods, the population is so busy with problems, such as survival, reconstruction and financial crises, that the artistic production simply takes a back seat. At the beginning of 2000, we artists from the Balkans were concerned with questions of quality, that is to say, whether our works of art would be shown in the West only because they came from the Balkans or because they had artistic quality. In 2003 I commenced studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Münster, which opened up totally new experiences for me, since the programme was highly exciting and constructive. Artists should never just stay at home. The times when an artist used to wait to be discovered are over. Every artist should embark on a journey of discovery in order to find himself as a person and as an artist. The best way to do so is to be mobile. Today I live in Kosovo, but I am trying to maintain a presence in the art market of the West. This is the only way I can survive as an artist.