Artist Name: Gerta Xhaferaj
Residency Dates: September – October 2025
Born: 1993
Hometown: Fier, Albania
Lives & Works: Basel, Switzerland
URL: secondaryarchive.org/artists/gerta-xhaferaj/ | Instagram @_gertaxhaferaj
Education:
2024 – MA in Fine Arts, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Basel, Switzerland
Bio/Statement:
Gerta Xhaferaj is the recipient of the 2024 Ardhje Award for young visual artists in Albania.
Gerta Xhaferaj lives and works as an artist between Albania and Switzerland. Employing both spontaneity and methodological rigour, her artistic focus lies in directly engaging with issues related to censorship and oppression, while seeking to extract intense aesthetic documentation from her experiences. Emphasizing and revealing the typically unseen, Xhaferaj’s approach includes a diverse range of media including photography, video, installation, and sound.
Xhaferaj’s solo exhibitions include Holding with contribution of Sophia Eisenhut, Courtney Jaeger, Kunsttage Basel (2025), A Pause, a Rose, Something on Paper, Galeria e Bregdetit, Vlore, Albania (2024); Descent into Limbo, Galeria 17, Pristina, Kosovo (2023); 16’, Prostor, Croatia Culture Hub, Split (2023), 16’, Jelsa Art Biennial, Hvar Island (2023). She has participated in group exhibitions such as open studio Asylum of the Silent Recall, Vila 31- Art Explora (2025); Ardhje Award Exhibition, Zeta Contemporary Art Center, Tirana, Albania (2024); Kurban, Video Art at Midnight, Gropius Bau Garden, Berlin Art Week, Berlin, Germany (2024); You Can Break a Rock with an Egg, Master Show, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland (2024); The Censorship of Flowers, National Bank Cultural Foundation/Goethe-Institut Athens, Thessaloniki, Greece (2024); Untitled, Larnaca Biennial, Larnaca, Cyprus (2023); Necrography (duo show), Grand Hotel, Manifesta Biennal 14, Pristina, Kosovo (2022). Gerta Xhaferaj has participated in residencies such as as a two-year residency at GGG Atelier in Basel Switzerland (2023-2025), Art Explora Residency: Vila 31, Tirana, Albania (2025), and Hangar, Lisbon, Portugal (2024).
Support: Gerta Xhaferaj’s residency is made possible with support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
