BIOGRAPHY
Selmani approaches the idea of perceived reality by deconstructing formations of social, political, and cultural topics that have been embodied around him. At a young age, he was told to worship a country that no longer existed, which caused him to form a basis of skepticism towards any supposedly given reality. He later used this as a beneficial tool to reconstruct his beliefs into visual artifacts. In 1999, old simulacra were replaced by new simulacra; the ornaments of a previous space were refurbished to unfold with new meanings but also new uncertainties. Selmani confronts himself as a spectator of this “ongoing event”, and positions himself as an actor, enacting his performances based on his personal histories, beliefs, and doubts.
CV
EDUCATION
2011—2012, Arts University Bournemouth, MFA Bournemouth, UK
2007—2010, BA Graphic Design at AAB Faculty of Arts, Pristina
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2020 Culture Hub Croatia, Split Croatia
2018 Artist Village Eindhoven Contemporary Art Platform WARP
Beeldenstorm, Eindhoven
2015 School of Engagement Art, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Berlin, DE
2012 CEC Artslink New York, USA
2011 Cultural City Network, Graz, Austria
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
How To Tilt Time?, Tillt Radio, Prishtina, Kosovo Everything We Do Is Really, Really Brilliant, Kahan Art Space, Budapest, Hungary
Prallë, Apiece Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania Everything We Do Is Really, Really Brilliant, Kahan Art Space, Vienna, Austria
The Barking Of The Dogs Will Not Hurt The Clouds, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, North Macedonia Depart to Somewhere Else, Salon Galič, Split, Croatia This Is An Exhibition by Driton Selmani. The Title Of This Exhibition Is: Rush Silently, Tillt Radio, Prishtina, Kosovo
The Grave Is Better Than Not Knowing, Palace of Youth, Prishtina Screenshots Of Now, Muzeji i Galerije Podgorica, Montenegro Beyond, Beyond, Dotrščina Monument Park /Virtualni muzej Dotrščina, Zagreb, Croatia
Love Letters, Ta·da, Copenhagen, Denmark Two Jokes Make One Truth, Corridor Project Space, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Artists in Quarantine, National Gallery, Prishtina, Kosovo
More And More Thoughts About Other Thoughts, U10 Belgrade, Serbia Places We Leave Behind, Writers Association The Noise, Skanderbeg Square, Prishtina, Kosovo First Day of Spring, SKulpturgarten | Margareten, Vienna, Austria
My country on my back – Exchiesetta, Polignano a Mare, Italy
Panorama, Tulla Culture Center, Tirana, Albania
Strange things happening in the Neighborhood Hotel Gracanica, Kosovo Daf, Def, Deaf – AfG, Vienna, Austria
Right turn, turn right, Tra c Gallery, Prishtina, Kosovo
Open Call 3+4, Stacion Center For Contemporary Art, Prishtina,
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Sonja S. Memorial, Nadežda Petrović Art Gallery, Čačak (upcoming) Fabric Of Life, Triënnale Beaufort, Blankenberge Belgium The Event of a Thread. Global Narratives in Textiles National Gallery, Prishtina, Kosovo Sounds Like a Whisper (Poetically Political) Sofia City Art Gallery
The Other. Re-Imagine the Future, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria Public Announcements, Museum Of Contemporary Art Roskilde, Denmark Exploitation of the "alive", Museum of Fine Arts, Osijek, Croatia Flag Is My Middle Name, 019, Ghent, Belgium
SIT carpet-meeting-place-exhibition, LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina, Kosovo Ecomythologies, 44th Montenegrin Art Salon, Cetinje, Montenegro Upplysa 7th edition — Gamla Skofabriken, Knislinge, Sweden It Matters What Worlds World Worlds. How To Tell Stories Otherwise, Manifesta 14, Prishtina, Kosovo HAPU / Art In Public Spaces, Prishtina, Kosovo The Revolution of the City around its Dream, Boulevard-Art & Media Institute, Tirana, Albania Tallinn Print Triennial 18th Edition: Warm. Checking Temperature In Three Acts, Tallinn, Estonia
Back & Forth, HayArt Cultural Center, Yerevan, Armenia Future Ecologies: Isle of Thorns, Galeria e Bregdetit, Vlorë, Albania Bigger than Myself: Heroic Voices from ex Yugoslavia, Maxxi Museum, Rome, Italy OSTRALE Biennale O21: Breathturn, Dresden, Germany Memory Of The Fallen Trees, GFA - Prishtina, Kosovo Wanderlust, XIII Biennial Of Young Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje, North Macedonia The Manifest of Survival, Tulla Culture Center Tirana, Albania
Double Wall Of Silence, ŠKUC Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia & Hestia Exhibitions Bureau, Belgrade, Serbia Almissa Open Art Festival, Omiš, Croatia
Long-Distance Relationship, Espace Témoin, Geneva, Switzerland & Motrat Prishtina, Kosovo 6–Chome-30-3 Higashi-Ogu, Tokyo, Japan We’re Not Like Them, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art - MMSU Rijeka, Croatia Open City - Nuit Blanche Prizren, Prizren, Kosovo From Anywhere to Anywhere, La Maison des Arts, Brussels, Belgium Norrköping Light Festival, Norrköping, Sweden
Mundane, Eugster || Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Fog, National Gallery - Mala Stanica Skopje, North Macedonia
Are our Memories History? Muslim Mulliqi Prize, National Gallery, Prishtina, Kosovo The Map Is The Territory – Bregenz Biennale, Bregenz, Austria Fog, National Gallery, Prishtina, Kosovo
Existential, Amsterdam Light Festival, 6th Edition, Amsterdam, The Netherlands So Close So Far – Center for Cultural Decontamination, Belgrade, Museum of Contemporary Art, Serbia Belgrade Institute of Philosophical and Social Studies, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Historical Museum of BiH, Sarajevo: Cultural and Social Repair Center, Banja Luka, CCI Observatory Balcani Caucasus Transeuropa and Boccanera Gallery, Trento Boem, Vienna, Institute for Studies In Southeastern Europe Regensburg, Germany
Bregenz Biennale, Bregenz Austria The whale that was a Submarine – Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest, Hungary Young art from Kosovo – Galerie Lukas Feichtner, Vienna, Austria
Parallel Sprawl – Modelariumi i Arkitekturës, Prishtina, Kosovo Nationless – Thessaloniki Center of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece A new round of cultural dialogue, Culture Re product Odžaci, Serbia Actual art, a rupture within the antagonism, MKC Youth Cultural Centre Skopje, Macedonia Dierent Worlds – Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography Ljubljana, Slovenia
Let us start from the middle – Tirana Art Lab – Tirana, Albania Here Now Where? A participatory project of sonic ambulation in Marrakesh’s taxis 5th, Marrakesh Biennial, Marrakesh, Morocco Zoo Art 14 – Giardini Fresia, Cuneo, Italy Sculpture Me – Kunstraum Niederosterreich, Vienna Austria Anonymous lives – Batman Universitesi, Batman, Turkey Praise of Doubt – Onufri Prize XX, National Art Gallery, Tirana, Albania
Alternative Nomadi, Fabbrica del Vapore Milan, Italy EX – Ordinary No Borders No Nations, Collegium artisticum Sarajevo, Kontrapunkt Skopje, Slobodne veze Zagreb, Photon Ljubljana, U10 Beograd, Center of Contemporary Art Podgorica Monumental Sculptures from Yugoslavia in Kosovo, Artifacts between Memory and Neglect, Stacion Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina Kosovo Errors Allowed, Mediterranea 16 Young Artists Biennial, Ancona, Italy
Sex Lives of the Poor and Unknown, Polymer Culture Factory, Tallinn, Estonia Dust, The Gallery, Arts University Bournemouth, United Kingdom I am what I used to be, Northern Studios, Bournemouth, United King
Aberto para Re – Forma, Casa Contemporanea São Paulo, Brasil Polip, Manipulation Center TETRIS, Prishtina, Kosovo Buzz’n’Buss, Urban Tra c Center, Prishtina, Kosovo
Onufri Prize, National Art Gallery, Tirana, Albania Artists of Tomorrow Prize, National Art Gallery, Pristina, Kosovo Muslim Mulliqi Prize, National Art Gallery, Prishtina, Kosovo
3+4 - A Working Module, Stacion Center For Contemporary Art, Prishtina, Kosovo Personally Political, Contemporary Sensation, Kunsthaus Tachels, Berlin, Germany