Mustaf Ahmeti

Mustaf Ahmeti is an Antwerp-based per­for­man­ce artist born in Pristina, Kosovo. In 2020, they gra­du­a­ted as dra­ma artist in the master’s pro­gram at KASK, Ghent. In addi­ti­on to acting, Mustaf’s prac­ti­ce also inclu­des phy­si­cal and abstract visu­al work and per­for­man­ce art. By focu­sing on the body as a field of research, they make an attempt through ritu­als to explo­re the rela­ti­ons­hip bet­ween the human and what is expe­rien­ced as alie­na­ting, bet­ween humans and natu­re, natu­re and cul­tu­re, fear and con­trol. In their work, they want to get away from reduc­ti­ve ide­o­lo­gies, valu­es, norms and truths in order to (re)discover our­sel­ves — and thus also our own alienation.

Their prac­ti­ce is dee­ply root­ed in their per­so­nal expe­rien­ces as a non-bina­ry per­son living in schism. They use a vari­e­ty of media, inclu­ding per­for­man­ce and visual/​installation art, to con­vey their com­plex and often con­tra­dic­to­ry perspectives.

They explo­re the­mes of iden­ti­ty and body poli­tics, dis­pla­ce­ment and the expe­rien­ce of queer bodies in repres­si­ve socie­ties. Their research draws from a wide ran­ge of sour­ces, inclu­ding mytho­lo­gy, the­o­lo­gi­cal ima­gery and ico­no­grap­hy, mys­ti­cal prac­ti­ces, eso­te­rism, Sufism, clas­si­cism, the Middle Ages, posthumanism/​transhumanism, cyber­punk, and queer the­o­ry. These fra­me­works are acti­ve­ly woven together to reima­gi­ne sup­pres­sed modes of repre­sen­ta­ti­on, body poli­tics, and spe­cu­la­ti­ve futu­res, with the aim of dis­rup­ting domi­nant orders and ope­ning spa­ce for forms of exis­ten­ce that esca­pe bina­ry or nor­ma­ti­ve definitions.