Image: Röda Sten konsthall, Göteborg
Röda Sten Konsthall presents the solo exhibition ‘…why do you hold back?’ by Kosovan artist Doruntina Kastrati from 12 September to 22 November 2026.
The exhibition combines sculpture, video, sound and monumental reliefs to explore the relationship between the body, machines and work. Most of the works were created specifically for Röda Sten Konsthall.
Site-specific installations across all floors of the venue engage with its industrial architecture and historical connection to local sugar production. Materials and narratives drawn partly from confectionery manufacturing examine how repetitive movements and long working days shape the body and people’s experiences.
The exhibition’s title comes from the opening line, ‘My tears, why do you hold back?’, in Barbara Strozzi’s seventeenth-century musical piece ‘Lagrime mie’. The question functions as an echo through the exhibition, articulating a tension between silence and expression, restraint and resistance. The exhibition is curated by Amila Puzić.
Kastrati primarily works with sculpture, installation, sound and moving image, using the body to examine biopolitical power and social and political questions around labour from a global perspective. At the 60th Venice Biennale, she represented the Kosovo pavilion with the sculpture and sound installation ‘The Echoing Silences of Metal and Skin’, receiving an honourable mention for national participation.
