The Monumentality of the Everyday

Jakup Ferri (born 1981 in Pristina, Kosovo) began his career as a painter. After a short interlude in which he was using video, some 17 years ago the artist started turning his drawings into hand-made textile works. Ferri considers carpet-making and embroidery not only as ways of producing a textile product, but also as a technique of social interaction, coherence, and community building.

At the 59th Biennale Arte 2022, Ferri presents paintings, embroideries and carpets in a large-scale site-specific installation entitled The Monumentality of the Everyday. Many of Ferri’s works show everyday scenes involving animals, children, acrobats, musicians, and sporting activities. At times, the everyday or mundane turns into the surreal, or magical: monkeys speaking or making music, people turning into birds, people becoming animals or hybrid creatures.

With his works, Ferri zooms in to the details of everyday life, shifting our focus away from ‘big’ topics to create an imaginary world inspired by the immediacy of life. His vivid portrayals of city life and leisure connect to folk elements and rituals where the urban space merges with nature, and where humans and animals act as equals, like in cartoons and comics or indigenous and vernacular imagery.

Text in English and Albanian.