Bio
Arbër Qerka-Gashi (b. 1997, London) is a writer, curator, visual artist and community organiser of Kosovar heritage. He holds a BA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London, and an MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture from Birkbeck, University of London.
Arbër is the founder of the grassroots archival, educational, visual arts platform and print publication, Balkanism. He is also the co-founder of the progressive events initiative, the Balkan London Collective.
Arbër engages with a wide range of themes through his writing, curatorial work, and artistic practice. By drawing on visual arts, repurposing archives, and cultural and historical research, he uses artistic collections, material culture, and found objects to provoke critical reflection on social justice, ethno-nationalism, displacement, diaspora, and intergenerational trauma.
Arbër most recently co-curated the Inside/Outside and All In Between (2024-2025) exhibition at the Migration Museum, which explored the dynamics of migration and displacement.
Arbër was most recently engaged in a residency at Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Arts as a part of the Community Curators collective.
He welcomes collaborations with collectives, organisations, and publications that share his dedication to dismantling oppressive systems and cultivating broad-based inter-ethnic solidarity.
This image features Arbër’s maternal grandparents, Ibrahim & Rabije Qerka on their wedding day, Prishtina, Kosovo, 1955. It also depicts his great grandmother, Firdeze Qerka.
“I wanted my parents to be like those I saw reflected on the television, connecting us to the outside world. I was negligent as a child. But a child wants what they want, and I wanted our home to be as it “should be.” The westernised dream I felt inadequate about not having. That while our home was located in the “right” place, in the west, it abided by and carried the traumas of the Balkans at its core – engraining our “otherness”.”
