Past Residents
Past Resident2012: Foundation for a Civil Society
Ledia Kostandini
Ledia Kostandini’s work focuses on social transformations of inherited and lost culture. She takes an ironic and often humorous approach to her work through the juxtaposition of cultural and social icons, suggesting a new perspective national events. Her works – photography, paintings and installations with mixed media objects – show a highly sensitive instinct for ideologies in different disguises. Kostandini analyzes the power of images and how they function within varied ideological systems, either in a visible or hidden way. Influenced by her country’s communist past and its threat of violence, Kostandini analyzes family stories and popular images to gain distance from the dynamics of economy and global capitalism.
Based in Tirana, Kostandini is a graduate of the Art Academy, Tirana. Recentexhibitions include What Happened to the General, Tirana; Rewind/Play/Forward, Graz, Austria; Jeune Creation, Paris; and See Visions, Sarajevo.
Ledia Kostandini, National map, 2009, Photo on light box, 30 × 50 in. (76.2 × 127 cm).
Ledia Kostandini, Cartoon movies, 2011, Cardboard, 11 × 7 in. (27.94 × 17.78 cm).
Ledia Kostandini, Cartoon movies, 2011, Cardboard, 236 × 59 in. (599.44 × 149.86 cm).
Ledia Kostandini, Feedback 1989-2009, 2009, Mixed media, 60 × 100 in. (152.4 × 254 cm).
Ledia Kostandini, Feedback 1989-2009, 2009, Mixed media, 200 × 200 × 100 in. (508 × 508 × 254 cm).
Residents from Albania
Past Resident2012: Ministry of Culture, Taiwan
Meiya Cheng
Meiya Cheng’s research focuses on issues facing cultural production including conditions of exhibitions, the role of existing art institutions and cultural policies that shape the environment surrounding this work. Based on field research in Asia, Cheng initiated the institution Taipei Contemporary Art Center in 2009 with a group of activists, curators and artists to express the necessity of independent, non-profit institutions to serve the art community and to create a base for experimental art practices in Taipei. In addition to this work in the public realm, she also curates and conducts research on art projects in the technological age.
Meiya Cheng is an independent curator and cultural organizer based in Taipei, previously working at MOCA. She has published articles in Artco magazine, Art and Investment and Broadsheet. Recent projects include Taipei Contemporary Art Center, co-founded with a group of activists, artists and curators in 2009; Augmenting the World, a curatorial project for the 6th Taipei Digital Art Festival; and Trading Futures, co-curated with Pauline Yao, TCAC.
Meiya Cheng, Guidebook Cover “Augmenting the World”, 2006.
Meiya Cheng, E-flyer “Trading Futures”, 2012.
Meiya Cheng, No Ghost Just a Shell, 2006.
Residents from Taiwan
Melissa Keys
Melissa Keys is an independent curator and writer. She has curated a wide range of projects and programs in museums and art spaces including solo, survey and thematic exhibitions.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Melissa Keys holds an MA Curatorship from the University of Melbourne and a BFA from the Victorian College of the Arts. Keys was previously Curator at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts. She has held positions at Monash University Museum of Art and Heide Museum of Modern Art and has produced independent projects for numerous institutions. In 2009, she was an Asialink curator in residence at KHOJ, International Artists Association
in New Delhi, India. She is currently associate curator at the Embassy of Australia, Washington DC.
Curated by Melissa Keys, Concerts, 2009. Photo courtesy of Eva Fernández.
Curated by Melissa Keys, An Ever Expanding Universe, 2008. Photo courtesy of Eva Fernández.
Curated by Melissa Keys, Intimate Acts, 2009. Photo courtesy of Eva Fernández.
Curated by Melissa Keys, The Weight of History. Photo courtesy of Neale Stratford.
Curated by Melissa Keys, Forces of Nature, 2011. Photo courtesy of Paul Morigi.
