Xhevdet Xhafa: Still Running

Tracing Six Decades of Material Continuity

The National Gallery of Kosova currently hosts Still Running, a comprehensive solo presentation dedicated to Xhevdet Xhafa. Recognised as a foundational voice within Kosovan modernism, the artist's career now spans more than sixty years. This survey maps how his methodology has adapted alongside shifting cultural landscapes and institutional frameworks across the region.

Working primarily through painting, drawing, printmaking, and three-dimensional assemblage, Xhafa consistently blurs the line between depicted imagery and physical artefact. Domestic detritus—footwear, worn textiles, ropes, and ceramic fragments—functions as both subject and structural component. Rather than merely illustrating these items, he embeds them within thick, textured grounds. The resulting surfaces resist easy interpretation, forcing viewers to confront the tension between visual signifiers and tangible substance.

Memory Embedded in Surface and Absence

Although human figures rarely appear explicitly, the corporeal experience permeates every canvas and mixed-media piece. Scuffed boots and draped fabrics retain the ghostly imprint of previous owners, while creases and fractured edges evoke cycles of usage and eventual decay. Within compositions anchored by either deep charcoal or brilliant white, ordinary artefacts become partially swallowed by expansive tonal fields. They remain legible yet feel deliberately distanced. Here, remembrance operates not as a narrative device but as a physical residue carried through oxidation, fraying, and reconfiguration.

The exhibition derives its name from the creator's own philosophical stance regarding existence. He has often described life as an unending trajectory rather than a fixed endpoint, emphasising persistence over arrival. During a recent conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, he recalled traversing the hills near Peja as a meditative exercise. That act of locomotion translates directly into the gallery space, where recurring motifs mutate rather than repeat identically. Endurance, therefore, emerges as a dynamic cycle of disruption and renewal.

Historical Rupture and Institutional Legacy

Born in Peja in 1934, Xhafa received his initial training locally before advancing to the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana under Gabrijel Stupica. His postgraduate research concluded in 1967, after which he returned to the Balkans to shape academic pedagogy at the University of Prishtina. His teaching tenure influenced multiple cohorts of regional makers, cementing his status beyond his own studio practice.

The current show navigates the complex socio-political fractures that defined Yugoslavia and subsequent Kosovo. Instead of presenting history as a static record, the installation frames longevity as the ability to adapt through fragmentation. Objects are routinely stripped, relocated, obscured, and reconstructed. This approach rejects archival stasis in favour of organic evolution.

Organised collectively by his relatives, the presentation is supported by a substantial publication. Edited by Nita Salihu Hoxha, the volume contains previously unseen studies alongside critical contributions from Övül O. Durmuşoğlu and Ješa Denegri. It also features the aforementioned dialogue with Obrist, providing additional context for collectors and scholars.

Throughout his career, Xhafa has accumulated numerous honours, including distinctions from festivals in Cannes, New York, Čačak, and Belgrade. His pieces reside within permanent collections spanning European institutions and private archives worldwide. The project receives backing from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Kosova, underscoring the state's commitment to preserving regional artistic heritage.