{"id":2432,"date":"2026-04-20T21:11:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T21:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.k-clients.com\/exhibitions\/trepca-instalation\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T16:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T16:31:09","slug":"trepca-instalation","status":"publish","type":"exhibition","link":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.k-clients.com\/en\/exhibitions\/trepca-instalation\/","title":{"rendered":"“100” – Gazmend Ejupi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Title of the exhibition: 100<\/strong>
\nInstallation curated by: Gazmend Ejupi<\/strong>
\nMinerals by: Trep\u00e7a Sh.A<\/strong>
\nProduction by: Open Art Gallery<\/strong>
\nResearch: ESI, BIRN & Bridget Storrie<\/strong><\/p>\n

For our 1st anniversary we unveil an installation marking 100 years of mining at Trep\u00e7a.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These minerals come from Stant\u00ebrg \/ Stari Trg, the oldest mine within the huge Trep\u00e7a complex, 55 km north of Prishtina. Developed by a British mining company in the 1920s, shortly after Serbia\u2019s conquest of Kosovo, Trep\u00e7a was taken over by Nazi Germany during World War 2 until Yugoslav Partisans gained control in 1944, beginning a new era of maximising basic extraction with little investment.<\/p>\n

During Trep\u00e7a’s perceived golden age, 1960 – 1981, employment rose from 8,000 to 22,885 in 1988. It became a centre of protest when Milo\u0161evi\u0107 moved to revoke Kosovo\u2019s autonomy in Yugoslavia. 1200 miners staged an 8-day hunger strike underground in 1989 to defend Yugoslavia\u2019s 1974 constitution. The strike became totemic, but failed to prevent the illegal crackdown that heralded Yugoslavia\u2019s violent break-up.<\/p>\n

The minerals you see suspended here as if at a moment of Big Bang, generously donated by Trep\u00e7a, have been extracted 750 metres underground by miners still working in stark, remote conditions – 50C heat, wet, dirty, dusty, unprotected. Yet the lead and zinc ore from these remotely, primitively mined stones finds its way into our pockets, into our modern gadgetry – our mobile phones. Trep\u00e7a\u2019s lead and zinc also feature in car batteries. These crystals \u2014 raw, striking, and luminous \u2014 are more than geological marvels. They are carriers of time, mute witnesses of struggle, their deeper timeline now converging with that of our recent decades of resistance and liberation.<\/p>\n

TREP\u00c7A\u2019S EARLIER HISTORY: Mining at Trep\u00e7a dates back to Roman times and expanded in the Middle Ages after Serbian kings invited in Saxon miners. The name Trep\u00e7a features in a Papal charter of 1303. Stari Trg produced lead, zinc, silver and gold. The Ottomans took over the mine from 1455. Devastation caused by their wars with the Holy League caused mining to die out in the late 17th century. Trep\u00e7a\u2019s modern industrial revival started with assessments of its lead and zinc deposits in the 1920s, instigated by Yugoslav prime minister Nikola Pa\u0161i\u0107 and his son Rade, leading to a 50-year concession agreement with the British mine financing house Selection Trust upon conclusion of its exploratory operations in 1925. In 1927 Selection Trust launched its Trep\u00e7a Mines Limited subsidiary in London, started production in 1930, and operated the mine until World War Two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title of the exhibition: 100 Installation curated by: Gazmend Ejupi Minerals by: Trep\u00e7a Sh.A Production by: Open Art Gallery Research: ESI, BIRN & Bridget Storrie For our 1st anniversary we unveil an installation marking 100 years of mining at Trep\u00e7a. These minerals come from Stant\u00ebrg \/ Stari Trg, the oldest mine within the huge Trep\u00e7a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2430,"template":"","class_list":["post-2432","exhibition","type-exhibition","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.k-clients.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition\/2432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.k-clients.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.k-clients.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/exhibition"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.k-clients.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition\/2432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2437,"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.k-clients.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exhibition\/2432\/revisions\/2437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.k-clients.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reportinghouse.k-clients.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}