Azem Deliu
Azem Deliu was born in
January 1996 in Skënderaj, Kosovo. In high school he graduated one year earlier
than his peers. Being a student of Albanian Literature (University of
Prishtina), he was honored with the high university award ʺDistinguished
Student“ while publishing the first poetry volume “The Funeral of Rain”
(Onufri, Tirana, 2013). The great success of him was the novel ʺThe
Illegal Kisser“ (Onufri, Tirana, 2016) which, besides being a national
bestseller, has already been translated into English. Interest for the author
is growing also in other countries. French press has called him ʺthe
great author of the small country“ and ʺthe
new star of European literatureʺ. He is a member of the Association of Philosophers of
Kosovo since the age of 19. He is being compared by Albanian and foreign media
and critics with such names as Kadare, Dostoyevsky and Orwell. ʺThe
Illegal Kisser“, his first novel, is also his international debut at the age of
21. His next novel will be written during art residency in ZAMEK Cultural
Centre in Poznan, Poland.
photo by Agata Rogoś
THE SOUNDS OF MEMORY
The second novel of
Azem Deliu that is planned to be written in ZAMEK Cultural Centre during the ʺArtist-In-Residenceʺ
program is presented as a project called ʺThe
Sounds of Memoryʺ.
ʺDealing
with the pastʺ and ʺpost-war traumaʺ of a
pianist from Kosovo who was sexually abused during the last war in Balkans will
be the subject of the novel.
The main exploration of this project is focused more on the way we deal with
memory than on the memory itself. No matter how terrible things have happened, it
is important how we remember them.
As a part of his art residency Deliu will be holding a lecture and a public art-talk
on the topics related to the project.
This project will aim at reconstructing the experience of war, trying to regain
the memory of the main character.
Yet the challenge is even greater: how are victims perceived in the society and are they aware of the fact that “guilt” is something they are not really guilty about?
