Doreida Xhogu is presenting part of her experiential and multidimensional work entitled "Qengjat e Vegjel'' (trnsl. “The Little Lambs'') borrowing its title from a traditional Albanian children's song. Χhogu's work includes sculptural installations and videos and establishes a dialogue between each other and thus composing an emotional and fragmented narrative of memory and loss.

Traveling back and forth to the village of Selenice in southwestern Albania where the artist was born and raised, Xhogu creates artworks with materials such as tar produced in the village’s mine. These mineral products are the main source of income and thus essential for the survival of the local community. Her creative process is entwined to the factory itself and her fellow villagers who are engaged in the creative process and therefore having an impact on its outcome.

The practice of Xhogu is apparent in “Qengjat e Vegjel” itself. It is an ongoing process that deals with both the concept of a meteoric identity, as well as issues of loss, individual and collective oral histories. The materials, in Xhogu's hands, become living witnesses of an internal search for meaning: they acquire a new purpose and a ritualistic dimension. They communicate, they grieve and they offer opportunities to heal.

Doreida Xhogu: “Qengjat e Vegjel” @ ERGO Collective space 25 February - 6 March 2022

SHORT BIO

Doreida Xhogu was born in Selenice, Albania and studied sculpture at the School of Fine Arts under the guidance of Aphrodite Liti. She has exhibited her work at the Archaeological Museum of Delphi (ASKT Station, Delphi, 2017), at the Italian Embassy in Athens in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute (The Garden of Sculptures, 2017 and 2019), at the Alkmini Theater (Athens) (Premieres, 2017), at “Reflex Photographer” (Athens) in collaboration with ESAAA-Ecole Superieure d'art Annecyalpes ”(Minus, 2017),at the Numismatic Museum of Athens (Astraftero – Blank, Sculpture and Coin in the Spirit of Olympism, 2019), at IPTO (Athens) ('Sculpture Exhibition in collaboration with the School of Fine Arts - Connecting Greece, 2019–2020), at MOMus– Experimental Center for the Arts in Thessaloniki (Together, So far so close, 2020).In February 2020 she held her first solo exhibition within the Geranis Festival entitled Miniera (Romance, Athens). She also participated in the exhibition of the 62nd edition of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, on the subject of the satire "The rule of the game" by Jean Renoir (The Project Gallery, Athens, 2021).

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