Affective Commoning

My doctorate thesis, entitled Affective Commoning: Collective Curating in the Post-socialist Space, examined art collectives and collaborative practices in Albania, Serbia, and North Macedonia. This was developed by analysing the interventionist ways in which a younger generation of artists and curators in the region work with remnants of the post-socialist past, including public spaces, material objects, unofficial histories, and testimonies. In my thesis, I propose the term 'affective commoning' as a concept tool to describe a body of art and curatorial practices that common anew spaces and temporalities of the socialist past, transforming collective 'memory-work' into affective political action. I am currently preparing a monograph, based on this research.

Ecologies of Decay

During my research fellowship at UCL SSEES, I will be researching the legacy of post-industrialism in Albania. This will be developed through three main entry points: a) collecting experiences and testimonies of local communities in rural areas; b) researching and influencing current cultural and economic policies on post-industrial heritage; c) examining artistic and curatorial interventions that work directly with the abandoned industrial sites through performances, photography, installations, and exhibitions. The aim of this research project is to shed light to a currently under-represented modern heritage of the socialist past in Albania and to investigate the ways in which the visual and material cultures of post-industrialism can help us to understand broader issues related to the social and political transformations that followed after socialism.