Project Description
Prlja is an artist whose work deals with the complex situations of inequality and injustice in societies, ranging from political to economic issues. Using different media, her projects are multi-layered, site or condition-specific. She works mainly in installation, video installation, live art and public art.
Prlja’s main aim is to affect society in the most direct of ways; it challenges critical discourse around issues of current politics, nationalism, transition of ex-socialist countries, human rights, migration, etc., at the same time, her work maintains a conceptual and aesthetic authenticity. Prlja’s work adopts a site’s context specific quality or certain kind of social conditions, which may vary from project to project in the choice of media deemed most appropriate.
Biography
Nada Prlja represented The Republic of North Macedonia at 58th La Biennale di Venezia with the project Subversion to Red in 2019.l In 2020 Prlja will take part in Innsbruck International Biennial, she also took part in 7th Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Manifesta 8, Murcia, 5th Moscow Biennale, (Film Program), Moscow; IV Bienal del Fin del Mundo de Arte Contemporáneo, Chile and Argentina; 28th International Printmaking Biennale, Ljubljana and 9th International Biennale of Miniature Work, Gornji Milanovac, Serbia.
Selected solo exhibitions: Museum of Contemporary art, Skopje; FUTURA, Praha; Lakeside Kunstrum, Klagenfurt, MC Gallery, Zagreb, The City Museum, Vzigalica, Ljubljana, National Gallery of Macedonia, Skopje, etc. Selected group exhibitions: Kunsthalle Krems, Krems; White Cube, London; Calvert 22 Foundation, London; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork; Szuki Museum, Lodz; David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Hong-Gah National Museum, Taipei; Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; etc.
The practice-based research thesis, entitled ‘‘Blurring the Boundaries between the Artist and the Viewer as Conditioned by the Changing Concept of Art Space’, gained Prlja a MPhil Master of Philosophy of Arts Diploma at Royal College of Art, London in 2002. Prior to that she graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Skopje (1997), and previously from the National High School of Fine Art in Skopje, Macedonia. (1999)
Selected public presentations: Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham; ICA, INIVA Institute of International Art, Tate Britain; University College of London (UCL) all in London, etc. Lecturer: Prlja has been senior lecturer visiting lecturer at various London universities (including Istituto Marangoni, London Metropolitan University, CASS College of Art, etc.) from 2004 to 2013, she is still visiting lecturer and gives talks on ther work and others.
Prlja co-initiated (SIA gallery with Daniel Serafimovski (architect and educator) in 2013, with the intention of engaging with and supporting Macedonia cultural scene internationally. SIA has collaborated with numerous cultural workers, including established artists such as Yane Calovski, Nikola Uzunovski, Hristina Ivanovska, Gjorgje Jovanovik, Alban Muja, etc.; architects and theorists Minas Bakalcev, Martin Gulevski, Jovan Ivanovski, Vladimir Deskov, Slobodan Velevski (curators of the Macedonian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018); curators Ivana Vaseva, Curatorial Platform, Zoran Petrevski, etc.