Diona Kusari

Diona Kusari (1997, Gjakova) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and researcher, cultural and arts mediator based in Kosovo. Her work focuses on performance, participatory events, video and sound installations as well as short films. Her artistic practice deals with illustrating the 'invisible' in terms of ideology and faith, folk practices, public expressions of vulnerability, challenging apparent dichotomy and delineation of the private (individual) and the public (state, society). Diona is part of the Potpuri collective, which focuses on experimental research, self-organized and decentralized knowledge production. She is part of the first collective in Kosovo which conceptualizes and runs cultural and arts mediation programs. She has initiated and coordinated various research, educational and advocacy projects for several civil society organizations in Kosovo in the past seven years.

Diona Kusari is a scholarship holder of the “Fokus International” program, which was launched in cooperation with the Austrian Ministry of Culture (BMWKMS) in 2023. Young cultural workers from Kosovo (2023 - 2025) and South Africa (2025 - 2027) are invited to Austria to complete two-month internships at selected Viennese art institutions, thereby gaining work experience and enriching the host institution through their collaboration. During her residency at the MQ, Diona Kusari will complete an internship at Independent Space Index. This will allow her to continue her research on independent cultural spaces,, a process which she's been carrying out during the last half a year, of the scenes in Kosovo, Serbia and Slovenia. The artist is interested in the structure, methods of working, impact and sustainability of spaces that are independent, self-organized or collectively-run. She will specifically take an interest in actors on the scene with a focus on interactive and live art, participatory practices and community art, experimental and self-publishing practices as well as art mediation programs in the country.