ELECTRIFICATION OF A CITY

by Korab Krasniqi

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In 2017 I started a project in which I documented the memory landscape of Kosovo. I traveled through and through the geography of Kosovo and captured a multitude of memorial sites. This journey culminated in an online resource platform and a photo monography mapping and showcasing the diverse natures of remembrance in Kosovo, exploring a multitude of historical episodes.

In 2021–2022, working with a sound enthusiast, I supported the documentation of a wider range of memory sites, representing political, social, cultural, and economic bearings of the past. We traveled to Prizren in May of 2022 and photographed, audio recorded, and videotaped several locations, including “Prizrenasja” Hydro Power Plant, Lumbardhi Cinema, and Gazi Mehmed Pasha Hamam.

These landscapes serve as a reminder of the past and as a source of knowledge and inspiration today, sharing a common connection to water. Whether formed next to the river or designed to interplay with water itself, they invite contemplation.

‘Prizrenasja’ is tied to the history of Prizren and its electrification. Built in 1929, it was one of the first hydropower plants built in the country. With the support of water currents of the Lumbardhi river, it supplied Prizren with electric energy for forty-four years. It led to the opening of the first cinema and the development of new crafts. The hydropower plant supplied elites of society, public institutions, and commercial entities. Due to a lack of capacity and aging equipment, the hydropower plant stopped functioning in 1973.

‘Electrification of a city’ has been curated as a representation of the importance of ‘Prizrenasja’ Hydro Power Plant. The one hour long compilation attempts to build an atmosphere around the memorial; as an object existing in the past, which in small capacity supplied electricity to the city, marking an important stage of modernization of the city; as as site in the present that is reminiscent of the cultural, technological and economic past of the city; and as dystopian vision of the future, a fragmented echo of a bygone era, where the remnants of the past are overshadowed by a society that has lost touch with its roots.

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ELECTRIFICATION OF A CITY airs every Saturday 1700–1800 at Kolektiv Radio.