Stephanie Rizaj. ‘As If Biting Iron’.
9 — 21 November 2021
- Artists
- Stephanie Rizaj
- A project by
- Galerie Ron Mandos
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Stephanie Rizaj obtained the Best of Graduates Award 2019 organised annually by Galerie Ron Mandos in the Netherlands.
Questioning perceptions of labour and futility through the absence of the body, a set of constructed body straps, bearing the phrase “Struggle itself is enough to fill a heart”, laid the foundations for Rizaj’s performative sculptures. On returning to her familial Kosovo, Rizaj turned such Sisyphean concerns on their head as she refused to carry the weight of the felt patriarchy and instead followed her impulse to ask: “What if women could move a house?”
In As If Biting Iron (2019), Rizaj uses the medium of film to challenge this very question as we witness the walls of a brutalist building, situated in the forests of Kosovo, being moved by the forces of over 100 anonymous women. Pushing against the deadweight of the concrete, the burden of oppression literally and figuratively comes undone. Rizaj’s will to collective refusal not only affirms the potency of female unification, but implements a confidence that is palpable.
Stephanie Rizaj
- Artist
- stephanierizaj.com
Stephanie Rizaj is a visual artist who spends her time between Brussels and Vienna. Her artistic practice weaves together biomythographical narratives of marginalized groups with a critique of production conditions and power relations. Through the female gaze, it focuses on socio-political constructions of identities by examining thoughts of collective belonging, and the accompanying identity shift as a consequence of being on the run. Rizaj’s work ranges from performative sculptures to videos and site-specific installations.
Rizaj studied at different institutions including the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam (NL), and the University of Applied Arts Vienna (AT). Her work has been shown nationally and internationally in various exhibitions and festivals, including Manifesta 13 Marseille (FR), Stedelijk Museum (NL), Galerie Ron Mandos (NL), Diagonale (AT), Dokufest (XK). Amongst other prizes, she has been awarded the Theodor Körner Prize (AT).