Sislej Xhafa

This volume, which was published in conjunction with the exhibition in the Albanian pavilion at the 2005 Venice Biennale, features the oeuvre of Sislej Xhafa, whose subversive actions cast a new light on the way Europeans see themselves. In Pleasure Our Flowers (2000), the artist decorated the uncomfortable atmosphere of a police station in Ghent with gilt-framed mirrors, bookshelves, Biedermeier chairs, and Persian carpets, turning it into a deceptively cultivated, upper-middle-class environment. In Benvenuto (2000), an enormous word mowed into the grass on a hillside in Tuscany, he questioned European immigration policy. Born in Kosovo, Xhafa also makes use of common prejudices about his fellow countrymen, presenting himself as a clever pickpocket in the photograph Piazza della Signoria (1998) or, in Sweet Invasion (2000), as a young member of the Mafia, smartly clad in black, with sunglasses and a leather jacket. Exhibition schedule: Albanian Pavilion, Venice Biennale, June 12-November 6, 2005