Vangjush Vellahu – solo residency within the residential programme Dogs Are Barking, Caravans Are Passing Through (2020) –
artistic research about local cinema club Art Kinoklub Jadran,
active within shipyard 3. Maj.
6.2.-22.3.2020
MMSU / Krešimirova 26c, 51000 Rijeka

Vangjush Vellahu – solo residency within the residential programme Dogs Are Barking, Caravans Are Passing Through (2020) – artistic research about local cinema club Art Kinoklub Jadran, active within shipyard 3. Maj.

Vangjush’s proposal for the Risk Change residency had a starting point in his earlier work Home Conversations that investigated and identified the mechanism of work in one of the shut post-Soviet Armenian factories. He used interviews and family archives of the ex-employees to describe how, by organizing the life in and around the factory, the USSR created and maintained the social life of the entire city, including its subcultural branches. He also provided an insight into the social construction of the industrial workforce both during the Soviet time when the factory functioned as a city generator, and later during the 90s when it struggled to survive the post-earthquake breakdown of industrial society.

Vangjush intended to use the same approach in Rijeka, a post-industrial city filled with devastated industry remains. In this case, he also wanted to focus on the period before and after the ’90s, to underline the marginalization of some (class-to-work-related) communities by drastic political system change and the introduction of new forms of colonialism. 

3. Maj shipyard is one of the common spots of fascination for every industry-of-socialism enthusiast visiting Rijeka. Vangjush was no exception. But the artist’s attention didn’t finish on the shipyard whose glorious history is now crouching in gargantuan equipment and space. It was drawn on a special form of leisure time that the shipyard nurtured in socialism – Kino Photo Club Jadran.

Vangjush Vellahu stayed in Rijeka from 6 February until 22 March 2020.

Interview with the resident: https://mmsu.hr/clanci/risk-change-residency-meet-vangjush-vellahu/
Excerpt from V. Vellahu’s research and conversation with Petar Trinajstić, main figure behind cinema club Kinoklub Jadran.