On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2019, the audience in Pristina is invited not only to reflect on the mysterious object (White truck) located in the middle of the Skanderbeg Square in the city center of Pristina but also to enter the projection room inside the back of the truck. The installation questions both the political discourse towards free speech, as well as the passive pressure against journalists which gives way to a more open and progressive society, highlighting the difficult situation journalists face, while women journalists face additional risks.

The truck is a true representation of the burdens accumulated in time and will serve as an intentional obstruction not to be sidestepped, while making the audience engage and reflect upon the reality we live in, including the differences of experiences based on our gender. Future Is Temporary, Reality is ______ will serve both as a monument and a protest at the same time, operating as a mobile museum of the injustice towards freedom of speech but also as an open source of what is within us as a fragile democratic society. Inside the White Truck with the slogan: Future Is Temporary, Reality is ______ is an Audio/Video Installation featuring a selection of authentic (raw) threats made towards journalists in Kosovo in the past few years, while written threats will be presented only as BOLD text on the screen in the dark room, accompanied by authentic threads in an ongoing audio/video loop.

The multimedia installation includes interactivity between the audience and the mobile museum in the form of the truck (see image) as well as the symphony between video and audio projection inside the truck. The slogan: Future Is Temporary, Reality is ______ will be printed on the sides of the truck, which is conceived to be a deliberate obstacle in the itinerary of people passing through the square/center of the city, marking the obstacle that journalists and media freedom face in their path. Among the threats aired in a loop, 4 out of 17 target women journalists. In addition to the White Truck, the installation features a book with the same title: The Noise, including 150 pages of the same sentence printed on each page: Future Is Temporary, Reality is ______ thus inviting visitors to express their reflection on what the reality means to them and how they understand the given reality in written form, by using permanent markers to sketch their testimonies.

This makes The Noise function as an intimate survey of the minds & thoughts of society. As the third part of the installation, take-home messages will be distributed to visitors in postcard format, with Future Is Temporary, Reality is ______ on one side, and other information regarding the situation of women journalists in the global perspective of gender-based violence and male-dominated media sphere on the other side of this postcard.

*Kosovo Journalists Association has granted Selmani carte blanche for this extraordinary presentation and his unique artist's approach.

The Noise, 2019
Public space Intervention, Prishtina, May 2019
03.05—06.06.2019
Photo: Majlinda Hoxha
Courtesy of the artist & Kosovo Journalists Association ©