Alban Muja (1980) is a Kosovo based visual artist and filmmaker who graduated from the Faculty of Fine Art in Prishtina. His works cover a wide range of media including video installation, documentary, drawing, painting, photograph and performance, and have been exhibited extensively at local and international exhibitions, festivals and talks. He currently lives and works in Prishtina.

Yll Citaku (1979) is a Kosovo based film director who graduated from the Academy of Arts at the University of Prishtina, Kosovo. His short film Should I Stay or Should I Go (2001) won the prize for best film at DokuFest in Prizren. He directed several films such as Tatita (2005), Move with Me (2007), Blue Wall Red Door (2009), etc. He live and works in Prishtina.

About the curator Miha Colner:

Miha Colner (1978) is an art historian who works in different fields of contemporary art as an independent curator, writer, editor and lecturer. Specialized in photography, video and  other forms of media art he is engaged in number of local and international projects focusing on research, analysis and curatorial presentation of significant currents in recent art making. Since 2006 he has been working as a curator and program coordinator at Photon – Centre for Contemporary Photography (based in Ljubljana and Vienna), a non-profit organization focused on exploring and presenting contemporary photography and artists' moving image.  Since 2005 he has been contributing articles, interviews and essays to number of newspapers, magazines, radio programs, and specialized publications. Currently he is a lecturer of Modern and Contemporary Art (20th and 21st century) at the School of Arts, University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia / Italy). He lives and works in Ljubljana.
http://mihacolner.com  

Curatorial Statement:

The documentary Blue Wall Red Door (2009) is a collaborative project of Alban Muja and Yll Citaku that provides an insight into the transitional society of Kosovo, the state that proclaimed and gained independence in 2008, ten years after the last amongst the bloody civil wars in former Yugoslavia. Their main interest is to investigate and showcase a very endemic phenomena of the capital city of Prishtina and its streets that were renamed for several times during the turbulent recent history. The artists explore the ways how its inhabitants navigate through often nameless or unmarked streets. They talk to different people, taxi drivers, postmen, firemen, and accidental passers-by, who reveal their relation with the city; most of them do not know their own home address and therefore they are compelled to find alternative ways when it comes to receiving postal items or calling a taxi. Instead of names of the streets the citizens of Prishtina use commonly known provisional names of important buildings, homes or popular places in order to get orientation.

So the filmmakers drive around with taxis and accompany post office workers in their struggle to find searched locations across the city. Even though people seem to be slightly cynical about the immense changes in the past decade they do not complain about the fact that very often their streets have no names. There is always a way around and they still find the places where they want to go. However, certain public services such as fire brigade, first aid or post seem to be struggling a lot more. Even the city official who claims that the streets of Prishtina are predominantly named and signposted admits that his home does not have an address because the entire district is under construction. One could see the film as a harsh criticism of the local government but also as the reflection of universal issues of post-socialist societies of the Europe's southeast. Moreover, with a great sense of humour it reveals everyday particularities of Kosovo and its chaotic capital.