During our eighth and ninth session of “Book as an Artwork” workshop we welcomed Olson Lamaj from Albania with a double-header workshop “Rediscovering the Archive”.

Presentations of publications by Pararoja helped us see the potential zines and artbooks have as a medium. While the exhibitions provide “white walls” to artworks, this is done by paper for artbooks and zines. We also saw the importance and advantage of working with restrictions when publishing.

During the first part of the session, each participant created an eight page A3 zine, with archival photographs they brought from home. On the second part we all worked together on a joint project to create a collective A5 zine with the draft title “Memory Box”.

Olson Lamaj is a visual artist, editor and founder of Pararoja platform.

Pararoja is an alternative publishing house specialized in artistic publications, focused primarily in promoting visual artists through realizing publications in the form of zines. The platform experiments with the concept of limited edition as an alternative artistic space for creative expression and dialogue. Since the founding in 2020, Pararoja has realized over 22 publications, collaborated with around 15 artists from different parts of the world and has taken part in international book fairs in Greece, Istanbul, Paris and Vienna.

This program is made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.

During our seventh session of “Book as an Artwork” workshop we welcomed Arif Muharremi with “FantaZINA” lecture on hand drawn zines.

We saw how a zine is a medium that can contribute to social change, and how it is always important to create your artworks and writings and put them in the social context.

We saw how images are the perfect medium for the times we live in where the contexts change rapidly.

In the second part of the workshop, participants worked in groups to create their own mini publications that tackled current social issues relevant to Kosovo.

Arif Muharremi is a journalist and editor of culture in Koha Ditore, Express and author of the weekly Culture in Kosovo (BIRN).

He has coordinated EU programmes for education in cultural heritage, has managed projects for Manifesta 14-Western Balkans.

He is the author of the book with poetry and strips (OH!) and of educational games based on culture, heritage and visual art “Discover Prishtina” and “Who am I?”.

This program is made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.

Ftojmë krijues(e) që duan të ndajnë punë eksperimentale në formë të videos, të çdo lloj cilësie. Një përzgjedhje e veprave do të shfaqet publikisht. Preferohen punë nën 31 minuta. Afati i fundit: një javë para 28 nëntorit 2025.

Pëe të aplikuar, klikoni këtu.

During our sixth session of “Book as an Artwork” workshop we brainstormed ideas for our upcoming zines and artbooks. We focused on the concept as the most important part. We discussed format, typography, special features, and use of unconventional materials. For inspiration we looked at some hardcover artbooks and zines.

This program is made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.

During our fifth session of “Book as an Artwork” workshop we welcomed Ferdi Limani with his lecture on “Storytelling through photography”.

We discussed how to communicate important social issues to the public through photography and how by mastering the frame we guide the eye of the audience.

We learned good practices in photography by exploring Ferdi’s beginner mistakes and evolution of his style towards simplicity, as well as the importance of learning from mistakes.

We explored the strength that comes from limitations (either in equipment or environment), how to take photos with respect for the people/subjects, as well as the importance of taking your time to take a picture.

Ferdi Limani is an independent photographer, who works with Getty Images. He studied journalism and with local and international media in news and documentary projects.

This program is made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.

Ksci-Fi Video Klub comes back with a Halloween Special, with the screening of The Thing (1982) directed by John Carpenter.

Come by the StoryLab space on Friday, 31st of October 2025, at 18:00.

What better way to deal with chilling weather than with this seminal science fiction horror set in Antarctica. Feel the solitary chills at the back of your neck from vast snowy expanses and all the way to claustrophobic corridors of research stations.

#scifi #horrorfilm #Halloween

During our fourth session of “Book as an Artwork” workshop we welcomed Fatmir Mustafa Karllo with his lecture performance titled “Book of ideas”.

Karllo discussed how we complement each other as a group during the process of co-creation, as well as the role of instinct, improvisation, and spontaneity in the creative process.

Karllo also focused on the importance that the process of transformation plays in creating artworks, and made us think about impossible books: how to create an invisible book; what if we create a book that no one reads; a book that is present only at certain times; a book that is only one copy; a book that deletes itself.

During the workshop we collaborated with Karllo to create a book in the form of conceptual artwork.

Fatmir Mustafa Karllo graduated from the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Arts in the Department of Painting. From 2009 until 2018 he lived in Finland, where he also finished his master’s degree in the Department of Sculpture in the University of Arts “Kuvataideakatemia” in Helsinki.

In 2007 he won the award for “Artists of Tomorrow” from the National Gallery of Kosova.

His performances, installations and his visual works have been presented in different exhibitions, solo as well as group exhibitions in Prishtina, Helsinki, Brussels, Milano, Zagreb, Skopje, and New York.

He is the initiator of the project “On Top Residency” (2020) on a panoramic hill near the village of Butovc, where he built a “gallery without walls” with a view of Prishtina. He also founded the institute for Art and Culture Epifani in 2022. His personal exhibition “Strange Seed” was showed in the National Gallery of Kosovo in 2003.

This program is made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.

During our third session of “Book as an Artwork” workshop we looked at several examples of artists’ books. We discussed technologies of mass production and how they affect artworks, especially when compared to classical art

We saw how some art movements used artbook making as a utopian project. We focused on the relationship between form and content, experimentation as a process, and saw some examples of how randomness and permutations were incorporated into different works.

We also saw examples of how new technologies were integrated into artbook projects starting with the early avant garde of the 1900s all the way to some current examples.

This program is made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.

During our second session of “Book as an Artwork” workshop we discussed history of contemporary art and how it relates to artbooks and zines. The importance of concepts and ideas, social context, use of ready-made objects, intentionality, and transfromation in art were discussed, among others.

We discussed questions like: What is art; Who decides; what is its role in society; value of an artwork; how can we make art more accessible; etc.

In the second part we discussed zines, what makes them a unique art form, and some of the advantages of the medium.

This program is made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.

During the first session of “Book as an Artwork” workshop we welcomed participants from Kosovo, Albania, Germany, and the United States.

As always, we are super happy to have such a diverse group that includes architects, artists, designers, university professors, writers, game designers, publishers, economists, journalists, multimedia artists, as well as established zines and book artists who constantly enrich our classes with their unique views and discussions.

As StoryLab we are very honored for the opportunity to learn from their diverse experiences and have a chance to cross pollinate ideas.

All of the participants shared their great ideas and concepts for their upcoming zines and artbooks, and artworks and books relevant to their projects were recommended.

This program is made possible with the generous support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo.

We are delighted to present Ksci-Fi Video Klub, a series of sci-fi movie screenings. We are starting off with Blade Runner (1982) directed by Ridley Scott.

Join us at StoryLab space on Saturday, 14th of June 2025 at 18:00.

Let’s join detective Deckard in this quintessential cyberpunk feature in his quest to find and exterminate a group of replicants, as we explore issues of artificial intelligence, identity, and what truly makes us human.

#movienight #film #cyberpunk #scifi #prishtina

Moments from Sunday’s Print Bazaar 2025

Thank you to everyone who joined in on the fun.

StoryLab is so happy to be part of the neighborhood.

A special thank you to @42futur for organizing such an amazing event!

Can’t wait to see you all for the next edition! 😊