patient but until you started and thank
you so much it’s a pleasure being here
it’s an honor many of you sitting here
tonight you know my history more or less
but for those of you who don’t I would
like to share some of my personal
journey because that’s what helped me to
create thinking of you I grew up in
family of artists my brother and my
father are both artists my earliest
childhood memory are of my father him
sitting in the chair and working and
reworking the canvas he would sit there
for hours I would watch it he used a
variety of household and washcloth
to the most random objects in the
kitchen as a child I only had the
slightest idea a basic awareness of what
I was I was witnessing my father was
expressing in canvas his emotions his
uncertainties his struggles his worries
his political views which he was
forbidden to speak I was witnessing the
intimate language of art my art practice
centers on identity history and memory I
am very passionate about human rights in
general and especially about women
issues and their role in society I grew
up in 1990s Pristina Kosova under the
trophy’s Milosevic regime it was the
time when Albanians in Kosovo were
constantly being denied basic human
rights it was the time when Albanians
experienced discrimination in employment
equal high housing fair trails and
education I am an Albanian and therefore
I was not spared I was
denied an education in my own language
thankfully we completed high school and
university in sort of makeshift parallel
education system we created an
underground school system in the homes
of our professors and our peers an
alternative system allowing us to
continue our studies in those incredible
harsh time I began to understand the
priceless value of art as a unique
language created by individual yet
understood by all art became for me what
it was and is for my father and my
brother it is the way in which I best
express myself art is my language of
choice my voice that travels without me
having to utter a word art has no
barrier it is universal it is a way of
expressing the unsaid or unsaleable a
few years ago I came across a very rare
TV documentary an interview about the
survivors of sexual violence I watched
as the woman hiding behind the curtain
in a home in a hope of remaining
anonymous recounted her story of sexual
violence in the post-war period the
streets of fistina were full of the
stories of people’s struggles the
stories of heroism of the freedom
fighters the stories of massacres
horrifying stories which were told and
retold yet in all the years since the
war ended I had never once heard a woman
share her story of being sexually
violated
I watched the documentary and I watched
the woman hidden behind the curtain told
her story of sexual brutality and then I
lay I listened as this woman went on to
talk about how it just did not end there
she was not only sexually violated
but she was then stigmatized by the
society that she lived and loved she was
viewed as the woman without an honor she
had to live with a feeling of shaming
her family I couldn’t believe that on
top of the reality of her horrific
experience she was forced to carry the
guilt she was carrying a lifelong burden
without ever having committed a crime I
knew she was not alone there were many
and many that remained silent and in the
dark there were many women who were
encouraged by their families not to
speak about the sexual violence they
experienced in the war during the war in
Kosovo sexual violence was not a rare
and isolated act it was deliberately
used by the enemy forces as an
instrument to terrorize civilian
population and to push people to flee
their homes I felt deep sadness for
these woman’s they had experienced
horrific terrible violence and then
being rejected by the societies so as I
was watching the documentary I was
wondering why are these women being
treated this way why were they being
silenced and stigmatized and where were
the institution that were supposed to
protect them and support them
after watching the document documentary
I knew that I needed to do something
about it and I knew I had a feeling that
I had to push this woman to break the
silence I wanted to fight the stigma and
I wanted to know that I am thinking of
you we are all thinking of them and they
are not alone I wanted to do something
that would involve the whole of the
whole society the institution the
government
I wanted the woman to feel the
Solidarity of nation coming together to
help and to give something that left a
mark on my childhood as I said before my
art practice centers on identity memory
and his
sorry something that left a mark on my
child is that with my parents I
participated in a massive events of
reconciliation of the blood feuds during
the early 1990s that was the first time
that I witnessed the sense of solidarity
when the whole nation came together when
people from all walks of life
rich poor rural urban men and woman
forgave the old disputes and then moved
forward I would never forget that moment
I wanted this woman to feel exactly the
same solidarity the giving the
understanding of pain the recognition of
it and then moving forward thinking of
you is dedicated to the Kosovo survivors
of sexual violence during the war but
the same time it is dedicated to the
horse to the old sexuals to the all
sexual violence all over the world it
has its roots in Kosova but at the same
time it has a universal language of its
own and it can be understood and felt by
everyone sexual violence continues to be
used as instrument of war and its
victims remain unrecognized and silenced
globally so in creating the art
installation thinking of you I wanted to
make a direct call to break the silence
to fight the stigma a call to act and
show solidarity I called on men and
women to donate a skirt or a dress to
recognize the survivors I wanted to
create a piece that there’s it showed
there is no shame and no stigma I wanted
to break the silence I wanted to bring
this issue into the man’s world to a
public split place I decided to take
this hidden private issue that no one
wanted to talk about and bring and place
it in the main area in football stadium
in Pristina
I decided to create a piece where
thousands of skirts and dresses were
hung on the washing lines across the
stadium and no longer would that be a
voice behind the curtain across Kosova
men and women young and old came forward
to donate a skirt to join this activist
art installation and by making everyone
part of it part of this installation by
the very act of going in each sitting
and talking to the survivors and talking
and collecting the skirts and talking
the piece took on of its life on its own
journey it became a journey of listening
to the stories from all over cassava it
became a place where woman shared their
stories and their concerns it was very
very emotional deep learning experience
for me and for all who helped and
participated the art installation
brought us together to remember the pain
and to honor the survivors we had come
together to assure them that they did
nothing wrong to tell them that we are
thinking of you and together we will
break the silence and stigma for many of
the survivors participating giving the
skirts and hanging them themselves it
was a calming act of letting go and
moving forward one survivor I spoke on
the day of the installation sent me a
text and it read we cried tears of joy
that someone understands our concern and
that people have come in such a massive
numbers to support us there were many
texts and phone calls another woman who
donated a red dress told me that she had
saved this dress and she couldn’t let it
go
until this day and has encouraged it was
an immense
immense honor to help these woman in the
act of letting go and moving on the
woman I met during the journey of
thinking of you were all strong woman
survivors who had suffered a lot and who
deserved the recognition and the support
of the community institution and
government I can only hope that the art
instillation thinking of you has
encouraged our society to begin to break
the silence for all the silence
surrounding this issue there were many
women activists and who kept fighting
even when no one wanted to listen and I
think all the volunteers everyone who
contributed because they were an
inspirational and enormous help on this
journey thinking of you is a story of
survivors strength and solidarity as a
mother telling a story is part of my
daily life so I want to end up telling
you a story about the starfish story I
don’t know how many of you know the
starfish story of making the difference
an old man was walking on the beach one
morning after a big storm and the storm
had washed up thousands and thousands of
starfish into the shore he sees a little
girl in the distance and tossing
starfish is back into the ocean and
people watch amused the girls picks one
up and tosses into the ocean and then
another and then another the old man
says little girl what are you doing you
can’t save them all it’s impossible to
make a difference
there are thousands and thousands of
star fishes in the shore so there is no
way you can put them all back into the
water returning another one back to the
water she says with a smile it made a
difference to that one and to this one
and to the other one so then all the
people came together they joined them
and they starting
in the starfishes into the ocean we can
all make a difference and help create a
positive change especially when we
tackling and addressing massive social
problems especially on this case of
sexual violence
I hope thinking of you give survived the
strength and the support to move forward
and to speak up and I hope it will
encourage all of us to speak up because
for together we really can make a real
difference thank you [Applause]