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Yeast is a living agent, a catalyst capable of activating flour, water, and air. In these static materials, it awakens the latent potential to come together and become something else: a dough, then bread, a roll, a pretzel, and other forms of nourishment. This process of transformation, unchanged for millennia, was once believed to be a form of magic. In much the same way, immigrants activate and reshape their lives in Western societies, not only adapting to new socio-economic realities but subtly reforming them in return. In the case of bakery workers scattered across the West, the labor of making bread becomes entangled with the making of futures—for themselves and for the communities they feed.
Kemil Bekteši takes yeast as a point of departure to reflect on labor, migration, and resilience. This reflection emerges from a deeply personal place. His father, Ruzmir Bekteši, is a baker whose labor enabled Kemil’s artistic practice. Through his work, Kemil gives voice to his father, and by extension to all those whose labor creates the unseen conditions for art and survival. In this exhibition, Kemil also presents a poster of his father Ruzmir, further centering his presence and acknowledging the generational foundations that sustain his practice.
Rooted in personal histories, the works turn the gaze toward the working conditions of Kosovars dispersed across the West—not as stereotypes, but as workers, as artists, and as individuals who navigate the in-between. Today, it is estimated that about one third of people born in Kosovo live abroad. The trope that the Kosovar baker owns or works in a bakery is a familiar nationalistic stereotype in the Balkans, often repeated without pause or reflection. Here, Kemil Bekteši picks up that very cliché and turns it inside out, examining what lies beneath.
Slow and Unstoppable features a series of processual installations composed of stainless steel structures from which dough slowly, quietly grows. The cold, industrial, and sterile metal—standard in professional kitchens—becomes the frame for something soft, warm, and alive. The dough keeps rising from within, transforming the installations throughout the course of the exhibition.
Slowly. Unstoppably. (excerpt from a text by Bojan Stojčić)

Kemil Bekteši (b. 1997) is a Kosovar visual artist of Gorani origin whose work explores food and migration. His work is often underpinned by themes of identity, geopolitics and cultural memory through a personal history marked by borders and migration. His artistic practice spans a range of media, including food, installation and sculpture. His art often reflects the cultural and political overlaps between the countries of the former Yugoslavia, as he has been personally connected to the region throughout his life. Bekteši’s research into social issues often focuses on the complex relationships between nations, cultures and histories and how these are expressed in contemporary visual forms. His work examines both interpersonal and geopolitical dynamics, positioning him as a reflective voice in the ongoing discourse on regional identity. 

He received his MA (2021) and BA (2020) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, where he was awarded the Golden Badge for Outstanding Academic Achievement. In 2018/19 he studied Contemporary Art at the Faculdade de Belas Artes do Porto (Portugal), and in 2023 he participated in the WHW Academy in Zagreb, Croatia. 
Winner of several awards, including the Zvono (YVAA) Award for Young Visual Artists in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2024, and was a finalist for the Mangelos (YVAA) Award in 2022 in Belgrade.
His work has been presented in numerous institutions including The Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (2026), The National Gallery of Kosovo (2025), RU House, NYC (2025), Die neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Germany (2024), Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2022), The National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2020). He lives and works in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.    

Exhibited works:

1. Kemil Bekteši, Slow and Unstoppable, OBJECT1, 2025, Stainless steel, dough 47x62x174,6 cm
2. Kemil Bekteši, Slow and Unstoppable, OBJECT2, 2025, Stainless steel, dough 15x100x100 cm
3. Kemil Bekteši, Slow and Unstoppable, OBJECT3, 2025, Stainless steel, dough 60x120x3 cm
4. Kemil Bekteši, Slow and Unstoppable, Father, personal archive, Wallpaper, 300×170 cm