PARIS.- GALLERIA CONTINUA / Les Moulins presents L’eau sans rivi鑢e, a solo exhibition by Sislej Xhafa bringing together works created over more than two decades of artistic practice, new works conceived specifically for the occasion, and Le Village de l’Imagination, a project developed with children and young people from the local community.
L’eau sans rivi鑢e unfolds as an exhibition in a constant state of transformation. Existing works, new productions, collective experiments and performances coexist within a shared environment, allowing the exhibition to evolve through the presence and participation of those who inhabit it.
At the heart of the exhibition is Le Village de l’Imagination. Over the course of several weeks, children and young people aged 5 to 17 are invited to draw, paint, build, write, move, play and perform. Rather than following a predefined methodology, participants are encouraged to give form to what does not yet exist, drawing on their own observations, experiences and imagination.
The project is part of ART & FUTUR, a research programme dedicated to cultural mediation through ongoing and diverse forms of experimentation. Conceived to foster an encounter with art that goes beyond contemplation, ART & FUTUR offers children and members of the local community experiences that invite them to live art, feel it and become part of it. Le Village de l’Imagination extends this approach by making participation, experimentation and imagination essential components of the artistic experience.
The landscape of the gallery becomes both context and material. Wood, stones, leaves, earth, clay, water and found objects from the surrounding environment enter an open-ended process of transformation. Materials are approached not only for what they are, but also for what they might become. Xhafa conceives Le Village de l’Imagination as a collective work, shaped by the encounters, gestures and contributions of its participants. Here, imagination becomes a form of knowledge, enabling us to observe and question the world through other possible forms.
Throughout the exhibition, familiar materials and everyday objects are displaced from their conventional functions. A watermelon becomes a self-portrait; a wheelbarrow becomes a Rocket Ship; iron takes the shape of flowers; a hammock becomes a territory suspended between rest and instability. Through simple gestures and unexpected associations, ordinary objects remain recognisable while becoming open to new meanings.
L’eau sans rivi鑢e evokes a substance without a predetermined course: something fluid that exists without being contained by an established direction. Within the exhibition, this image resonates with a process in which imagination is free to move, disperse and take unexpected forms. Rather than determining what should emerge, the project creates the conditions for discovery.
Born in Pej, Kosovo, in 1970, Sislej Xhafa lives and works in New York. His practice investigates the social, economic, and political realities and complexities of contemporary society. Over the years, Xhafa has explored themes such as migration, tourism, forced illegality, and economic and social inequalities, often through a minimal, ironic, and subversive language.
Working across sculpture, drawing, performance, and photography, Xhafa approaches everyday phenomena and social structures through unexpected gestures and situations, questioning established perceptions and systems.
In March 2022, Xhafa was appointed Honorary Academician of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze.
In 2022, he founded ARKIV, the Institute of Contemporary Art, in Pej, Kosovo. A public, non-profit NGO located at the current public school 'Vaso Pash Shkodrani', ARKIV serves as a platform for contemporary art and cultural exchange.
Xhafa represented Kosovo at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017, and his work has been exhibited internationally at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, MAXXI in Rome, and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. His latest work, under two sun, is currently presented as part of Gibellina Italian Capital of Contemporary Art 2026.
