Zaneta Vangeli, born 1963 in Bitola, F.Y.R.O.M., lives and works in Skopje. Vangeli is a sculptor, painter, filmmaker and conceptual artist. Vangeli’s work reflects on representations of national identity, as felt in the complex position between east and west, between experiences of violence and vulnerability, conflict and uncomfortable peace that embody the contemporary Macedonian experience. Her meticulously rendered installations struggle to express the irreconcilable meaning of these conditions through the application of negative theology – an early Christian philosophy that attempts to affirm the existence of God by describing what is not God. While her work dwells in the political history and realities of the Balkans, she is ultimately more interested in what they represent on an internal and individual level. As such she seeks to reveal the battles being fought by subjects within ethical and religious domains made manifest in the battles for territories and resources.
