Past Residents
Past Resident2011: Foundation for a Civil Society
Alban Muja
Alban Muja was born in Mitrovica, Kosovo, in 1980. He currently lives in Prishtina, Kosovo, where he graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts. Muja’s artistic practice is mostly influenced by the social and political transformation processes in his home country of Kosovo, but also of the region and beyond. Muja investigates history as well as the socio-political themes and links them to his condition and social position. His work covers a wide range of media including video installation, short films, documentary films, drawings, paintings and performances, and has been extensively exhibited internationally.
Alban Muja, Blue Wall Red Door, 2009, Film, 33 min. Courtesy of the artist
Alban Muja, Museum Of Contemporary History, 2004, C-print. Courtesy of the artist
Alban Muja, Palestina, 2005, Video. Courtesy of the artist
Alban Muja, Windows Seat Drawing Project, 2006, Drawing. Courtesy of the artist
Alban Muja, Tibet, 2009, Video, 5.52 min. Courtesy of the artist
Pietro Ruffo
Pietro Ruffo’s paintings, drawings and sculptural installations reflect his intense social and moral concerns. The large ‘maps’ which trace the cultural and military influence of some of the world’s largest imperial powers appears also in the artist’s choice of techniques. Technical drawing and geographical maps are elaborated further with free-hand drawing, installations achieved with highly technical materials and an intensely manual practice. Last year, the themes of colonialism and the desire of liberty led Ruffo to develop a project named The rise of liberalist thought in the U.S.A. through the figure of Isaiah Berlin, an Oxford Professor considered to be one of the strongest exponents of
liberalism in the 20th century.
Pietro Ruffo was in 1978 in Rome, Italy, where he later studied architecture. Recent exhibitions include: MAD, Museum of Art and Design, New York; TEA, Tenerife Espacio de Las Artes, Islas Canarias Spain; Schöndeling Kunstverein-Langenhagen, Germany; MAXXI Museum of Art of the XXI century, Rome, Italt; MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy; in M.A.R Museum of Ravenna, Italy; La Pescheria Museum of Contemporary Art, Pesaro, Italy. In 2005, Ruffo travelled to Beslan, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russian Federation, to work with children who survived the Chen rebels massacre in their local school. Ruffo also worked on other public projects, including a sculptural proposal for Ground Zero in New York, a special project at the psychiatric hospital in Colmar, France, and various art workshops with children in disadvantaged situations.
Pietro Ruffo, Isaiah Berlin, 2010, Watercolor and cut-out on paper, 80 × 65 in. (203.2 × 165.1 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Pietro Ruffo, Liberty, 2010, Ink on paper cut-out, 40 × 0 × 40 in. (101.6 × 0 × 101.6 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Pietro Ruffo, Liberty (Detail), 2010, Graphite and paper cut-out, 80 × 80 in. (203.2 × 203.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Residents from Italy
Raffaela Naldi Rossano
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University, Italian Cultural Institute of New York, Directorate-General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture
Studio #217
Past Resident2010: Danish Arts Foundation
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen
Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen (b. 1963 in Copenhagen, Denmark) lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. He graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in 1992.
In his most recent exhibition, Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen presents a series of new paintings installed upon black walls, upon which small texts are written. A diary written by a vampire, who is the artist himself, is also a part of the exhibition. Schmidt-Rasmussen presents us with stories from his own neighbourhood in Copenhagen, which represents a classic terrain vague, as well as the rest of Copenhagen and Denmark. The paintings communicate atmospheres in which the everyday and the trivial is illuminated by the poetic presence of color and glitter, but also by a melancholic darkness. In his work he addresses the relationship between the immediate and the distant world.
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Le Sacre du Printemps, 2010, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist. Photo courtesy of Anders Sune Berg
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Le Sacre du Printemps, 2010, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist. Photo courtesy of Anders Sune Berg
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Bubbles, 2009, Oil on canvas, 781/2 × 67 in. (199.39 × 170.18 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Teat Tree, 2009, Oil on canvas, 781/2 × 67 in. (199.39 × 170.18 cm). Courtesy of the artist
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Migrant labor, 2009, Oil on canvas, 781/2 × 67 in. (199.39 × 170.18 cm). Courtesy of the artist
