Astrit Ismaili

Astrit Ismaili is a performance artist working predominantly with experimental pop music to explore the transformational potential of bodies and spaces. Their work proposes bodies that consist of both imaginary and material realities, using alter egos, body extensions, and wearable musical instruments to embody different possibilities for becoming. Through these elements, they think of, about, and through the body: as it transforms and is transformed, as it moves, makes sound, and makes contact, extends and exceeds itself, reaching out to and touching the other. Within their practice, the act of singing is used to explore the role of voice in pop culture and identity politics. To Astrit, music composition and singing come quite naturally since they have been engaging with it from a young age. Together with their sister Blerta Ismaili, they have been very active in the Kosovo children’s music scene following the war in the early 2000s, recording an album composed by their mother Selvete Kransniqi Ismaili. Through music composition, singing, and physical transformation, Astrit Ismaili tackles fictional, historical, and personal references that are used as material to build worlds and embody new icons. They function as alter egos, who, subjected to limitation, use their creativity to reinvent themselves and their environment. In the artist’s practice femininity is seen through a queer lens as a transformational force that resists and opposes different systems of oppression.