Yeast is a living agent, a catalyst capable of activating flour, water, and air. In these static matters, it awakens the latent potential to come together and become something else: a dough, then bread, a roll, a pretzel, and other forms of nourishment. This process of transformation, unchanged for millennia, was once believed to be a form of magic. In much the same way, immigrants activate and reshape their lives in Western societies, not only adapting to new socio economic realities but subtly reforming them in return. In the case of bakery workers scattered across the West, the labor of making bread becomes entangled with the making of futures, for themselves and for the communities they feed.&nbsp;For his newly commissioned exhibition, Kemil Bekteši takes yeast as a point of departure to reflect on labor, migration, and the quiet force of resilience. This reflection emerges from a deeply personal place. His father, Ruzmir Bekteši, is a baker whose labor enabled Kemil&rsquo;s artistic practice. Through his work, Kemil gives voice to his father, and by extension to all those whose labor creates the unseen conditions for art and survival. Rooted in personal histories, the works turn the gaze toward the working conditions of Kosovar&rsquo;s dispersed across the West&mdash;not as stereotypes, but as workers, as artists, and individuals who navigate the in-between. Today, it&rsquo;s estimated that about one third of people born in Kosovo live abroad. The trope that the Kosovar baker owns or works in a bakery is a familiar nationalistic stereotype in the Balkans, often repeated without pause or reflection. Here, Kemil Bekteši picks up that very cliché and turns it inside out, examining what lies beneath.Slow and Unstoppable, features a series of processual installations, composed &nbsp; &nbsp; of stainless steel structures, from which dough slowly, quietly grows. The cold, industrial and sterile metal, a standard in professional kitchens, becomes the frame for something soft, warm, and alive. The dough keeps rising from within, transforming the installations throughout the course of exhibition. Slowly. Unstoppably. Surrounding these sculptural works are Maps001&mdash; 004, wall drawings of somewhat abstract maps. These maps Kemil produced in the cities he recently worked in, including Berlin, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, New York, always going further west. In each city, he visited each Kosovar-owned bakery, mapping their coordinates and connecting them. This cartographic gesture reads as a form of urban and diasporic pilgrimage that allows one to connect with the roots far away from home. The gallery reverberates a constant hum which is a sound piece recorded at Ruzmir Bekteši&rsquo;s workplace. GGM21, captures the sound of a dough mixing machine that his father turns on each morning at 2:00 AM. By the time the bakery opens, both machine and Ruzmir have already been working for hours, unseen and unheard. In the exhibition space, this low hum becomes the voice of that invisible work(er).Together, these works speak of migration, transformation and fermentation as both metaphors and methods of life. Just as a microscope reveals fermentation is not magic but work, in parallel, Kemil&rsquo;s installations uncover the slow and cumulative processes that shape the diasporic lives: generational persistence, care, and endurance.- Bojan Stojčić Installation:&nbsp;Stainless steel / Dough / Wall drawings / Sound InstallationCurator: Bojan StojčićProduction: Hana HalilajPhoto-documentation: Agon DanaDesign: Studio PermanentNita Salihu Hoxha, Lira Gjikolli&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;The National Gallery of KosovoPrishtina, Kosovo2025.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

Slow and Unstoppable

Astoria explores interconnected themes of migration and breadmaking. Bekte&scaron;i is reflecting on a story of his father being a migrant and a baker, he is exploring the bakeries established by many who left Kosovo. In his works, different bread sculptures connect with bakeshop mapping in various cities where the migrants found new homes. The exhibition presents the fourth installment of this series - another network emerges above the famous grid when connections are made between the bakeries that the artist mapped in NYC. It links with a personal photograph with a note, and a sculptural installation of bread blocks, where this famous cultural marker symbolizes the essence of building structures, as well as solidarity, support, and connections among scattered communities. Installation / Drawing / Photograph In collaboration with:&nbsp;Arberia, Djerdan Astoria, Djerdan Burek, Dukagjini Burek, Dua Cafe, &Ccedil;ka Ka Q&euml;llu, Balkan Grind, Sweets by Linda, Ekosfere, Teuta Qebatore, Dea Burek, Cakor, Si n&rsquo;shpiCurator: Data Chigholashvili RU House, Governors IslandNew York City, USA2025.

Astoria

Bekte&scaron;i&#39;s artistic-research project Sofra Shqiptare, conducted earlier this year in Berlin, is conceptually rounded off with the work Euro Smile. Driven by years of research into his family&#39;s migration experiences, Bekte&scaron;i explored various migration flows of workers in Berlin bakeries, originating from Kosovo and Albania. These flows were represented in the Berlin exhibition through a wall drawing and installation &ndash; intertwined simits in the form of a chain.In the Sarajevo exhibition he is showcasing a performative act of getting a gold tooth. The practice of gold tooth-making, once typical of gastarbeiter (migrant workers), functioned culturally as a symbolic display of newly acquired power and economic prosperity. By investing the honorarium he received for participating in the Berlin exhibition into getting a gold tooth, Bekte&scaron;i continues his cynical play with prejudices and stereotypes. At the same time, the self-proclaimed status of power, acquired through artistic work &quot;across borders,&quot; becomes a symbolic and conceptual monument to all other &quot;artist-gastarbeiters.&quot;Adna Muslija,Curator, Gallery of Contemporary Art Manifesto Installation, 24K Gold toothIn collaboration with Dr. Azra PirovićCurator: Adna Muslija, Bojan StojčićPhoto-documentation: Ajla SalkićVideo-documentation: Ahmed AvdagićGallery of Contemporary Art ManifestoSarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina&nbsp;2024.

Euro Smile: A Monument to Gastarbeiters

&#39;EuroKruhek&#39; illustrates various patterns of migration among bakery workers from Kosovo. It symbolizes the interconnectedness and solidarity among these workers through a drawing that maps the city&#39;s bakeries in the form of dots and lines connecting them. The artist transforms purchased bakery products from these mapped bakeries into an installation representing a form of totems.&nbsp;The term &quot;totem&quot; originated from the Chippewa word &quot;ototeman,&quot; which literally means &#39;relatives by the womb&#39;. It is often inaccurately translated as &#39;his relatives&#39; and similar phrases, but it denotes a clan relationship among people, emphasizing kinship and blood ties. In the installation, the artist utilizes pans belonging to their father, a baker, to preserve traces of his work, drawing attention to the often invisible and undervalued labor of bakery workers. Installation / DrawingCurators: ETC. Magazine ( Ajda Ana Kocutar, Hana Čeferin, Lara Mejač ), Tina PētersonePhoto-documentation: Marijo ZupanovMIDAS&nbsp;Ljubljana, Slovenia2024.

EuroKruhek

Installation view: "Selling out" MIDAS. Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Curators: ETC. Magazin and Tina Petersone
Photo: Marijo Zupanov / ETC. Magazin. Courtesy the artist.

Installation view: Detail
Photo: Marijo Zupanov / ETC. Magazin. Courtesy the artist.

Drawing - MAP002: Ljubljana
Courtesy the artist.

The installation &#39;Sofra Shqiptare&#39; illustrates the various migration patterns of bakery workers originating from Kosovo. It symbolizes the interconnectedness and solidarity among these workers through a wall drawing depicting dots and lines connecting them, as well as an installation featuring intertwined sesame rings forming a chain. Installation / Wall DrawingIn collaboration with:&nbsp;Sofra Shqiptare (I, II, III), Aroma B&auml;ckerei, Pashtriku B&auml;ckerei, Kalaja B&auml;ckerei, Edoni B&auml;ckerei, Hit B&auml;ckerei, B&auml;ckerei Allaf, Imeri&rsquo;s Balkan Burek, Prizreni Curators: Bojan Stojčič, Adna MuslijaPhoto-documentation: Benjamin Renter, Bojan StojčićPhoto-documentation on film: Kemil Bekte&scaron;inGbK (neue Gesellschaft f&uuml;r bildende Kunst)Berlin, Germany2024.

SOFRA SHQIPTARE

Installation view: Sofra Shqiptare at nGbK, Berlin (Germany)
Curators: Bojan Stojčić, Adna Muslija
Photo: Benjamin Renter / Bojan Stojčić. Courtesy the artist.

Installation view: Detail
Photo:  Benjamin Renter / Bojan Stojčić. Courtesy the artist.

Wall drawing - MAP001: Berlin
Courtesy the artist.

Installation view: Detail, MIDAS. Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Curators: ETC. Magazin and Tina Petersone
Photo: Marijo Zupanov. Courtesy the artist. 2024.

&ldquo;250&deg;C&rdquo; is a personal reflection on labor, migration, and the value society assigns to different types of work. This body of work, created from the baking pans used by my father in his profession as a baker, preserves the traces of grease and pastry left behind from years of use. These marks serve as a testament to the physical and emotional toll of manual labor, a contribution that often goes unrecognized despite its essential role in sustaining society. The title, &ldquo;250&deg;C,&rdquo; refers to the baking temperature for bread, symbolizing the daily grind of my father&rsquo;s work. This piece also explores the stereotype of Kosovo men working in the bakery industry across Europe, a narrative that shaped much of my upbringing. Through this work, I engage with the broader issue of economic migration, examining how labor becomes intertwined with identity, particularly for migrant workers who are often reduced to simplistic stereotypes. The use of gold leaf to cover the traces of labor is central to the artwork&rsquo;s concept. Traditionally associated with wealth and status, gold transforms the ordinary into the valuable, prompting questions about what society deems worthy of recognition. This elevation of my father&rsquo;s labor through the use of gold highlights the disparity between the value of essential work and how it is often overlooked or under- valued. &ldquo;250&deg;C&rdquo; challenges viewers to reconsider their perceptions of labor and the workers who perform it. The contrast between the utilitarian baking pans and the luxurious gold leaf underscores the contradictions in how different types of work are perceived and valued within cap- italist systems. While physically demanding, low-paid jobs like my father&rsquo;s rarely receive acknowledgment, they form the foundation of everyday life. This work is both a tribute to my father&rsquo;s perseverance and a com- mentary on societal hierarchies. It invites viewers to reflect on whose contributions are celebrated and whose are ignored, and to question the standards by which we define value and success. Baking pan / gold leaf&nbsp;Photo-documentation: Bojan StojčićSarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina2023.

250 °C

Photo: Bojan Stojčić. Courtesy the artist. 2023..

Installation view: MIDAS. Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Curators: ETC. Magazin and Tina Petersone
Photo: Marijo Zupanov. Courtesy the artist. 2024.

Installation view: "Demode", Rijeka (Croatia)
 Courtesy the artist. 2023.

Installation view: Detail. "Demode", Rijeka (Croatia)
 Courtesy the artist. 2023.

The backbone of the performance was the everyday act of kneading bread, this time transformed into a strong symbolic message about true heroism and the impossibility of real equality. Dressed in Hero&#39;s vest (a work by Nikola Dimitrović), an object made of barbed wire, Bekte&scaron;i kneaded bread in a wooden trough while the vest left numerous scars on his body. By carrying out an action traditionally associated with women, Bekte&scaron;i has already begun to problematize gender roles in all our societies. But by adding to this action the element of physical pain and anguish resulting from the use of the Hero&#39;s vest, the artist opened the performance to many questions, such as those about true heroism, the meaning of home, the neglected memories of everyday life far from great battles and inhabited by silent heroines, and finally - the invisible work of women and their invisible wounds.Nela TonkovićCurator, Contemporary Gallery Subotica Perfomance,Curator: Nela TonkovićHero&#39;s vest: Nikola DimitrovićPerfomance documentation: Luka MilanovićContemporary Gallery SuboticaSubotica, Serbia2023.

HERO

Installation view: "The Favorited" Contemporary Gallery Subotica (Serbia)
Curator: Nela Toković
Photo: Luka Milanović. Courtesy the artist.

Installation view: Detail, "Hero's Vest" Nikola Dimitrović
Photo: Luka Milanović. Courtesy the artist.

Installation view: Detail, "The Favorited" Contemporary Gallery Subotica (Serbia)
Curator: Nela Toković
Photo: Luka Milanović. Courtesy the artist.

TIP400: Proposal for a monument for a bakery worker&quot; is a dialogue and a tribute to Bekteşi&#39;s father. The work serves as a monument to the working class, questioning national stereotypes. Bekteşi creates a temple for a hero deserving of recognition in his lifetime. However, it avoids entrapment within the confines of its own privacy; instead, it employs a universal language to establish a collective space for visitors, allowing for individual interpretation in alignment with their experiences.A public monument inherently invites diverse interpretations beyond the author&#39;s original intent. Monuments become sites for gathering and interaction, evolving beyond their initial contexts. A monument that once glorified a personality or ideology may now reflect entirely different beliefs. Throughout history, such circumstances have reshaped the aura of monuments, imbuing them with new symbolic forms and prompting fresh meanings and interpretations. Therefore, Bekteşi allows space for his personal &quot;ideology&quot; to adopt new significance with each visitor, who perceives the monument through their own lens. Sculpture,In collaboration with: Ruzmir Bekte&scaron;iCurator: Bojana JovanovićPhoto-documentation: Luka MilanovićKULA, CetinjskaBelgrade, Serbia2023.

TIP400: Proposal for a monument for a bakery worker

Installation view: "At the monument at 7" Kula Cetinjska, Belgrade (Serbia)
Curator: Bojana Jovanović
Photo: Luka Milanović. Courtesy the artist.

Installation view: Detal, "At the monument at 7" Kula Cetinjska, Belgrade (Serbia)
Curator: Bojana Jovanović
Photo: Luka Milanović. Courtesy the artist.

&quot;A combination of different practices is also found in the work of Kemil Bekte&scaron;i. Bekte&scaron;i, contrasting his work position with his father&#39;s, criticizes the economic relations of labor. In the work of GGM 20, Bekte&scaron;i&#39;s artistic intervention is almost completely absent. The artist moves the means of work from the bakery workshop to the gallery space and changes its purpose - he turns an industrial mixer into a drawing machine. In this way, Bekte&scaron;i distances himself from his previous practice by allowing the machine&#39;s mechanical movements to sublimate both his and his father&#39;s work. The result of the first mechanical drawing installation in BiH is abstract and geometrized drawings - true artifacts of the father&#39;s love and hard work, which was the foundation thanks to which his son&#39;s art is being created. Observers witnessing the mechanical drawing process, in essence, faced with a dedication to the family. The infrastructure on which, in the absence of any other, BiH artists rely upon.&quot;Adna Muslija,&nbsp;Curator, Gallery of Contemporary Art Manifesto &quot;...in the central part of the gallery there is GGM 20 by Kemil Bekte&scaron;i, which, however, deals with the concept of heritage and identity in a completely different way. In his new work, Bekte&scaron;i builds on his previous work&nbsp;My Dad Loves Me So Much He Let Me Be An Artist, in an attempt to establish a direct dialogue with his father and the work he does for the working class. In this dialogue, several conflicting elements are contrasted, primarily the economic evaluation of the labor invested in the capitalist system, the valuation of the product, and finally the presence and absence of artistic intervention. As Kemil Bekte&scaron;i&#39;s father is a baker by profession, he takes one of the tools from his workshop and translates it into a gallery context, the industrial mixer now becomes a drawing machine. The results of this work, in fact, represent the first mechanical drawings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, they are circular and abstract, however, although the machine moves in the same way every time it is turned on, the patterns are surprisingly different. The works depend on how long the mixer is on and how the pencil is positioned on it, thus again requiring the direct intervention and decision of the artist. GGM 20 is a sincere testimony of the love between father and son, and the hard work of one generation, which lays the foundation for the next to reap the fruits. However, it is worth looking at this work in a wider context, outside of the artist&#39;s personal story. It is important to note that the work is being created at the same time as the new craze for AI art, which is causing very different opinions. With this, GGM 20 takes an important step forward and raises relevant questions about artistic intervention today.&quot;Jovana Trifuljesko,&nbsp;Art historian and curator on GGM 20. Installation, mechanical drawings.&nbsp;Curator: Adna MuslijaPhoto-documentation: Ajla SalkićGallery of Contemporary Art ManifestoSarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina&nbsp;2022.

GGM 20

Installation view: "POV" Sarajevo (BiH)
Curator: Adna Muslija
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist.

Installation view: Detail "POV" Sarajevo (BiH)
Curator: Adna Muslija
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist.

Drawing 01
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 02
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 03
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 04
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 05
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 06
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 07
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 08
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 09
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 10
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 11
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 12
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 13
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 14
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

Drawing 15
Photo: Ajla Salkić. Courtesy the artist

&quot;Old Blood&quot; is a public performance, specifically taking place at the Institute for Blood Transfusion of Serbia. It delves into the geopolitical situation in the Balkans, particularly questioning and commenting on the relationship between Serbia and Kosovo. I was born in Belgrade, where I attended primary school, hold Serbian citizenship, and am proficient in reading and writing Cyrillic. Does that not make me Serbian? However, my parents are originally from Kosovo, which attests that pure Kosovo blood runs through my veins. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia on February 17th, 2008, through a declaration adopted by the Kosovo Assembly in Prishtina. Serbia still regards it as its autonomous province, albeit recognizing its institutions in the 2013 Brussels agreement. Kosovo and Metohia hold significant positions in Serbian secular and ecclesiastical history and are inevitably intertwined with narratives of Serbian heroism and suffering. Kosovo blood symbolizes prestige and serves as a significant signifier of Serbian national identity. On paper, with all these elements, I am someone whose blood carries this &quot;special significance,&quot; yet not all Kosovo blood is held sacrosanct. It must meet certain criteria to attain its &quot;true value.&quot; What are these criteria, and who determines them? Through a simple and humane act&mdash;donating blood, which I did for the first time in my life&mdash;I sought to ascertain whether my Kosovo blood would be deemed suitable for Serbia, whether they would embrace it as their own. &quot;Old Blood&quot; flows within me, a pivotal aspect of Serbian history. This marked my initial attempt to donate my Kosovo blood to Serbia, which they declined. This endeavor persists and will continue until Serbians accept the blood they so eagerly desire. Performance2021 - ongoing First attempt: 07. 09. 2021.Photo-documentation: Adna Muslija Second attempt: 04. 06. 2022.Photo-documentation: Luka Milanović Third attempt: 04.12.2023Photo-documentation: Ajla Salkić Blood Transfusion Institute of Serbia (First and Second attempt)Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation (Third attempt)Belgrade, Serbia

Old Blood

 “MANGELOS Award - Finalist exhbition”
 Gallery Remont, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022.

The work &quot;Atlantis?&quot; is divided into two parts: the object and the performance in public space. This work took two years to complete. It commenced in 2019 when I noticed that in the largest park in the center of Sarajevo, there were cultural and historical monuments that no one cared about. While researching the topic, I came across shocking information, such as the revelation that these tombstones from the Ottoman period were used as building material in the construction of streets for traffic. The first phase of the work involved the theft of the monument itself, which I carried out in 2019. My goal was to keep the monument in my studio and observe what was happening around me, especially in the media. Would anyone notice that the monument was missing? After a year had passed and no one had mentioned a word about the stolen monument, I decided to create an identical replica of it. I placed the object in a fish tank and titled it &quot;Atlantis?&quot;. This working title directly alludes to the legend of Atlantis. I believe that if we continue to behave in this manner and neglect cultural and historical monuments in this way, we will become like Atlantis. Following that, in 2021, I decided to return the monument to the place from which I originally stole it. I accomplished this by carrying the monument through the most prominent and crowded streets of Sarajevo. The performance lasted two hours, and the monument was returned to its original location. Today, it still remains there, awaiting restoration. PerfomanceDuration: Two hours.&nbsp;Photo-documentation: Ajla SalkićSarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina&nbsp;12. 08. 2021.

Atlantis? 2.0, Returning the stolen object

“New Wave”
Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, BiH, 2022.

“ZVONO Award (YVAA) Finalist exhibition” 
Center for contemporary culture KRAK, Bihać, BiH, 2022.

“A(r)tlantida”
Novembar gallery, Belgrade, Serbia, 2022.

&quot;Historical and Cultural Monuments in Sarajevo Deteriorating Fast as Authorities Look the Other Way&quot; is a headline commonly seen in Bosnian newspapers and media outlets. &lsquo;Veliki Park,&rsquo; where numerous cultural and historical monuments reside, is also one of the largest parks in the heart of Sarajevo. These monuments are more frequently targeted by vandals than protected and valued by state institutions. With this in mind, I stole a tombstone from the park and kept it hidden for two years, waiting for someone to notice its disappearance. Of course, no one did. Subsequently, I created an imprint of the tombstone, crafting an exact replica. I placed the replica inside an aquarium with golden fish, pondering whether the history and culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina were gradually becoming Atlantis. Although the original tombstone has been returned undamaged to its rightful place, it still awaits its long-overdue restoration and conservation. Object2019 - 2021.Patinated plaster, glass, two goldfishes,&nbsp;40x37x30 cm.

Atlantis?

The work &quot;BEKTE&Scaron;I&quot; is part of the same-titled series of works (2018-2021), in which I question the complexity of my own identity, search for my roots, and strive to find a place where there are members of society who will accept me as their own. The feeling of non-belonging and alienation stems from a complexly constructed &quot;diasporic&quot; identity. I was born in Belgrade, and my parents were born in Kosovo. Now, I live in Sarajevo. I possess three passports and three ID cards. While as a child, my peers collected pictures of football players, I collected nationalities. Each of my presentations was a separate inquiry into my origins, and I could never find an accurate and simple answer. This cycle of works was created along the path of our intimate history, which, in the artistic process, becomes a symbol of the general-semantic unit of the common language with which we attempt to define ourselves. The work &quot;BEKTE&Scaron;I&quot; is an installation in public space, presented in the form of a billboard, serving as a commentary that challenges national intolerance in the society of today&#39;s former Yugoslavia, the stigmas and prejudices deeply ingrained in the language we use, and the universal question &quot;who am I?&quot; The work was exhibited at the first Youth Biennale in Belgrade, Serbia. BillboardPhoto-documentation: Bojan StojčićBelgrade, Serbia2021.