Since 2018, Metamorphosis has been one of Foundation Shtatëmbëdhjetë’s one of the most important projects, bringing attention back to abandoned buildings and the stories they hold. Through research, the collection of collective memory, site-specific artistic interventions, publications, and advocacy for the protection of cultural heritage and the past, the project has demonstrated that spaces are more than physical structures—they are vessels of a city’s memory. Through Metamorphosis, we have created an alternative archive of the city: one that relies as much on people’s memories as it does on historical sources.
Over the course of four editions, Metamorphosis has focused on the former Ramiz Sadiku Workers’ Canteen, Restaurant Marsi, the Red Cross Building, and Kino Rinia. Along this journey, three books have been published, documenting the research process, artistic interventions, and the histories of these sites and the neighbourhoods they inhabit.
This September, the fifth edition marks both the culmination and the conclusion of this chapter. Once again, it turns its attention to a forgotten building, continuing the exploration of memory, heritage, and the past, while bringing to a close an eight-year journey that has reshaped the way we understand the spaces of our city. One chapter comes to an end, but the questions raised by Metamorphosis remain open, paving the way for new forms of presenting this shared past, woven together through memory and the city’s history.
Which building will become the focus of this final edition—and everything else we have prepared—will be revealed very soon.
Stay tuned!
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Shtatëmëbëdhjetë is supported by the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF) program ‘EJA Kosovo’, co financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Sweden. Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. Also by Ministry of Culture, and Tourism and Municipality of Prishtina.
