Lala Meredith-Vula, School of Media and Communication, 羞羞视频 (羞羞视频), Leicester, UK.

Professor Lala Meredith-Vula

Job: PROFESSOR in Art and Photography

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Arts, Design and Architecture

Research group(s): Photography and Fine Art

Address: 羞羞视频, The Gateway, Leicester, UK, LE1 9BH

T: +44 (0)116 207 8674

E: lala@dmu.ac.uk

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Publications and outputs

dc.title: OBSESSIONS, POSSESSIONS dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A. dc.description.abstract: Lala Meredith-Vula research image work was part of The fifth Coventry Biennial titled Obsessions, Possessions, which took place in venues throughout Coventry and Warwickshire( 3rd October 2025 to the 25th January 2026) https://www.coventrybiennial.com/ This is a new exhibition held at Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, which featured three of my Bathers, Albania research works from the British Council Collection. The exhibition, titled in transit under another sky, is part of the Coventry Biennial 2025 ran between on 2nd October, running until 25 January 2025. The exhibition has developed from a collaboration between curators EN Mirembe from Uganda and Rosie Olang鈥� Odhiambo from Kenya, and presents over 40 works in Coventry from the British Council Collection featuring Keith Arnatt, Shirley Baker, Aubrey Beardsley, Sir Cecil Beaton, Derek Boshier, Angela Bulloch, Fahd Burki, Rohini Devasher, Suki Dhanda, Patrick Heron, Lubaina Himid, Mustafa Hulusi, Bruce McLean, Lala Meredith-Vula, James Morris, Cornelia Parker, Janice Tchalenko, Zadie Xa and Madame Yevonde. in transit under another sky was initiated in Kampala and Nairobi in 2024 as part of the British Council鈥檚 Art Exchange Moving Image Programme. Anchored in the life and work of writer-curator Yvonne Vera (1964鈥�2005), the exhibition explores displacement, belonging, and translation across shifting geographies. Thinking with Yvonne Vera reveals displacement not just as exile, but as longing, fracture, and the uneven weight of belonging. Each version of in transit under another sky carries a porous sense of place, with each city reshaping its meaning. Now unfolding in Coventry, the exhibition mirrors the British Council Collection鈥檚 relocation from London, turning migration into part of the narrative. The gathered works from the Collection alongside artists across East Africa evoke traces of other times and places, reflecting art as something constantly moved, both physically and emotionally.
dc.title: Ancora Londra dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A. dc.description.abstract: Contrasto, a publishing house based in Rome, Italy, specializing in the publication of photography books and catalogues (for more info, please visit www.contrastobooks.com). Have collaborated with Gucci on a book celebrating the art and creativity of London. The book is edited by Charlene Prempeh and Lewis Dalton Gilbert 鈥� founder and creative director, respectively, of A Vibe Called Tech, a creative agency dedicated to approaching creativity through an intersectional lens 鈥� and is expected to be published in the first week of October 2024. The book (size 27.5 x 27 paperback) will have a print run of about 9,000 copies and will be distributed free of charge. Also part of the print runs are in bookstore sales, in Italian-English and has been distributed worldwide.
dc.title: A Journey with my Father dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A. dc.description.abstract: REPORTING HOUSE exhibition on 10th of June at 18:00 in Prishtina鈥檚 Ge虉rmia Department Store. Marking a quarter of a century since the end of the Kosovo war, the REPORTING HOUSE exhibition offers today鈥檚 Kosovars and visitors to the country detailed insight into the European war that closed the 20th century. Presented by BIRN Kosovo, KALLXO.com, Prishtina Biennale and Paper Gallery, the exhibition showcases journalism, photography and media artefacts of the time, positioned alongside contemporary artwork exploring and reflecting on the impact of the war in the decades since. The REPORTING HOUSE exhibition enables visitors to navigate a conflict that simmered through the 1990s, gave birth to the guerilla Kosovo Liberation Army, boiled over into war in 1998-1999 and culminated in 11 weeks of NATO airstrikes leading to the liberation of Kosovo and, in 2008, its independence. The exhibition displays the first draft of this history, written by journalists, and demonstrates the central role played by the media alongside subsequent artistic interpretations of that history. The public is invited to further its understanding of Kosovo鈥檚 extraordinary story, while the exhibition is open to collaboration for its further development. The exhibition will present works by artists of diverse backgrounds and regions, from established names such as Anri Sala (Albania), Adrian Paci (Albania), Goncalo Mabunda (Mosambique), Lala Meredith Vula (UK- Kosovo), Zhana Kadyrova (Ukraine), Lana Cmaijcanin (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Olafur Eliasson (Iceland- Denmark), Laura Imami (UK) and Besa Llugiqi (Kosovo) to emerging artists like Vullnet Jakupi and Vita Kasapolli from Kosovo. The exhibition will feature 150 television stories from Kosovo between 1992 and 1999 by the BBC, Das Erste (German Public TV), NHK (Japanese public TV), RTE (Irish Public TV), EO 2 Vandaag (Dutch public TV), Tele 5 (Spanish TV), Nippon TV, RTK and Frontline Television News, promoting the work of the journalists, photographers, camera operators and local fixers who made them. Contributors include Jeremy Bowen, Ben Brown, Ilaz Bylykbashi, Thomas Dworzak, Alan Chin, Donika Shahini, Paul Lowe, Max Stahl, Ridvan Slivova, David Loyn, Jehona Lushaku, Besnik Mehmeti, Nik Millard, Andrew Testa, Pal S. Refsdal, Flaka Surroi, Hazir Reka, Marija Ristic虂, Fred Scott, Eliza Hoxha, Vaughan Smith, Nora Weller, Sean Whelan, Goran Tomasevic虂, Sami Mustafa, Alban Bujari, Linda Gusia, Eki Rrahmani, Gazmend Avdiu, Srebrenica Memorial Center, Anibar, Koha Ditore, RTK and Oral History Kosovo. The challenges faced by journalists covering the war in Kosovo still resonate today, when those covering conflicts from Ukraine to Gaza, Sudan to Ethiopia must contend with propaganda and disinformation amplified by social media. With three venues: Ge虉rmia Department Store, The Great Hammam and Paper Gallery, Reporting House creates a space for contemplation, dialogue, and catharsis, honouring the memory of those affected by the war in Kosovo while advocating for warless ways forward. The exhibition is produced by Jeta Xharra and curated by Gazmend Ejupi. The majority of the television archive material and artefacts has been provided by Vaughan Smith of Frontline News Television. The exhibition will be open until the middle of September. A press conference will be held on June 10th at 09:30 at the venue.
dc.title: Haystacks dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A. dc.description.abstract: Documenta is the world鈥檚 most famous and respected art event. Since 1972 it has been shown every 5 years and is generally considered 鈥榯he Olympics鈥� of the art world. The outputs of this project are the two new exhibitions of different bodies of my art work, Haystacks and Blood Memory. The recent focus of my work on such live issues as deprivation, reconciliation and diaspora, as well as its artistic quality, will have led to the decision of Documenta鈥檚 curatorial team to choose my work.
dc.title: "Folk Art * Sex Fantasy * Kosova Myths * London diaries"鈥� dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A. dc.description.abstract: "Folk Art * Sex Fantasy * Kosova Myths * 鈥� Artist Statement Normally people hide their contradictions. In this exhibition I wish to show mine in work made over the past three decades. I want to unify all the elements of myself in my art work. It is like a jigsaw puzzle for the viewer to piece together.... dc.description: "Folk Art * Sex Fantasy * Kosova Myths * London diaries"鈥╥s a solo exhibition and video film. The exhibition was held in London GX gallery in March 2015 that is based on a performance and video art research piece that was originally performed at the Borderlines: conference, 羞羞视频, Leicester in June 2014 and is now a video art piece being considered for the video festivals. A catalogue has been produced of the same title.
dc.title: Blood Memory dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A. dc.description.abstract: Blood Memory, shown in the National Gallery of Kosova in March 2015, consisted of 40 images from a body of work I carried out in the politically turbulent years of 1990-91. At that time Yugoslavia, where I was born, was on the brink of civil war, threatening the fragile process begun in Kosova of miraculously transforming centuries of bloodshed into a promise of peace and reconciliation. Since the 15th century, families in the region have lived by the grim edict 鈥渟pilled blood must be met by spilled blood鈥�. In 1990, sickened by the slaughter and destruction as Yugoslavia imploded, the people of Kosova took the future into their own hands. With no formal organisers or leaders, men and women, young and old, all over the country left their homes and trekked all day or hitchhiked on tractors or vans to witness their elders and victims鈥� families publicly announce forgiveness. They forgave the unforgivable: the destruction of homes and the destruction of lives. Blood Memory shows the crowds assembling with bodies clinging to every incline, mounted on telephone poles, rooftops and trees. At the heart of the group elders ceremonially embrace, arm in arm, hand in hand. Robbed of so many sons and brothers, the grieving crowds give their assent. This exhibition captures the tension of the moment, the solemnity of this life-changing transformation, and the exuberance as the reality of reconciliation strikes home. A dove is released, a white horse is ridden into the crowd, a couple and a drummer clear a space for an impromptu dance. Landscape and figures coalesce in scenes of powerful emotional beauty. How often does a community turn its back on hatred for the good of individuals and society? In a unique re-enactment of the original moment, Erzen Shkololli, Director of the National Gallery, asked to exhibit this work in 2015, a year marked by both European consolidation and growing instability. Working together with Karen McQuaid, of the Photographers鈥� Gallery, we installed the work, large and small, to encourage the audience to remember, and to move them to relive the moment of 1990-91. My images document the dignity, courage and compassion of ordinary people in an extraordinary time, and serve to inspire future generations to similar acts of altruism. It is about much more than one point in history and one place in Europe. The event it brings to life has powerful implications for other times and other places. That is why the exhibition attracted extensive media attention and was visited by the Presidents of Kosova and of Bulgaria, distinguished representatives of the EU, OSCE, foreign ministers and ambassadors. However, for me the highlight was when it was visited by the people who took part in the movement, their sons and daughters, their grandsons and grand daughters all remembering in front of these photographs. It brought the community together to remember solidarity over hatred. From Kosova in 2015 a message of hope resonates through the world.
dc.title: Four elements dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A.; Floridi, Massimiliano; Delbene, Giacomo
dc.title: Shifting borders: solo exhibition with catalogue dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A. dc.description: 鈥楽hifting borders鈥� was created with an AHRC award. I created a body of new work, about migration, diaspora, gender and cultural and national identity: a photo essay and album involving Kosova, Albania, London and Leicester and highlighting the Albanian diaspora. The work was undertaken with extreme rigour: 2600 photographs were taken, 60 of which are of exhibition/ publication quality. I lived in Prishtina and Tirana for one month collecting material and interviewing (recorded in 4 sketch books). A catalogue accompanied the solo shows of the new work premiering in the Kosova Art Gallery in 21 May- August 2007 then to the Albanian National Gallery, in Tirana 5 November-December 2007. Some pieces have been selected for the Artissima Contemporary Art Show in Turin (opening November 2007) and a solo show at the Alberto Peola contemporary Art gallery in Turin. The National Gallery of Albania has acquired one of the photographs for its permanent collection. The work is original as I am in a transcultural (and bilingual) position of belonging both to the Albanian diaspora and the UK, having been born in Former Yugoslavia with a Kosova father and British mother. The works of contemporary artists Phil Collins, Adrian Paci, and Shirin Neshat engage with some similar issues to mine, but my black and white purely photographic work is a product of trans-cultural heritage and close engagement with the individuals and communities I represent. The work is significant as when it was shown in Kosova the exhibition was reviewed favourably by 3 TV national channels and featured in 9 of the national news papers. The show was so successful that the gallery director extended the run for one more month. The UN commander general of Kosova (Reikner) attended the opening (some of the works were staged in a military base).
dc.title: Women and water: solo exhibition dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A. dc.description: Following on from earlier work on the female form and water, for example my 'Bathers' series, I wanted to revisit images of women and water produced by painters such as Degas, Bonnard, and Botticelli. My concept was to investigate the female nude form distorted by water by using photography, as compared to other artists who had used painting or drawing. By positioning the model under water, sensations of space and depth were uncertain and blurred for the viewer. In addition, an almost painterly effect was produced through the movement of the water displaced by the bodies and the play of light. Being a woman, I wanted to investigate how I could portray female nudes in water differently from these male artists, and show the female nudes as active, yet suspended in time and motion. A selection of this work was shown in a solo show at Galerie Kohinoor, Karlsruhe (September-November 2003) and then went on to the Karlsruhe Contemporary Art Show. More recently at the Design Biennale in Kosovo (2006) (winner of the special jury prize). I researched various locations and found pools in the South of France and in Sweden, which were without tiles, so that the figures would appear against a plain background. Tiles would have created a grid behind the figure, and I wanted to avoid this in order to produce a photograph that appeared more abstract from everyday contexts, and more dream-like. I asked friends and models to pose naked for me, after ensuring that they understood the purpose of the work and felt comfortable with this. I took 1000 shots and selected 50, which have been shown at various exhibitions.
dc.title: Quattro elementi - four elements dc.contributor.author: Meredith-Vula, L. A. dc.description: In 2004 I was invited to Campo Catino, in the mountains southwest of Rome, to participate in Massimiliano Floridi's 'Quattro Elementi' project, designed to help rejuvenate the area by encouraging established artists to draw attention - and tourists - to it. The project鈥檚 commissioners - the Doria Pamphilj estate 鈥� approached researchers from various disciplines including architecture, sculpture and photography. My research involved the translation of an embodied experience of the landscape, which I experienced over one month, into visual imagery. My completed work was acquired for the permanent collection - which also contains work by Caravaggio, Bruegel and Velazquez - for display in a purpose-built gallery in the mountains. I was inspired by the incredible landscapes and sculptures seen on my walks in the area, and attempted to represent the four elements in my work. I was fortunate to see different seasons on the mountains, from snow to sunshine, and a wide diversity of landscape, from desert to forests and mountains. I researched black-and-white landscape photographers such as Minor White, Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. Their work, however, does not engage with the experience of place as embodied experience, or the changing phases of the 鈥淔our Seasons鈥�. During my residency in this location, I revisited sites and took 160 shots, on conventional film as well as digital images to enable me to see my images immediately. Then I selected sixteen shots based on formal and expressive criteria, which I felt best characterised the 鈥淔our Elements鈥�. I worked in black and white to emphasise the purity of form, expressive force, and timeless quality of the locations. A book 'Quattro Elementi' illustrated by my work is on sale internationally in art book shops and museums, and is contributing to a deeper understanding of representation and the particularity of place.

Research interests/expertise

Contemporary Photography
Video
Film
Fine Art
Contemporary Visual Art
Photography and film history
Fine Art and Photography practice
Focusing particularly themes of migration, diaspora, identity and belonging
Art in Eastern Europe both contemporary and historic.

Areas of teaching

Photography, Video, Art
Photographic, Fine Art and Film/Video Practice
Photographic, Fine Art and Film/Video History
Photographic research practices
Fine Art

Qualifications

BA hon Fine Art (London),Post Graduate Studies (former Yugoslavia)

Courses taught

Photography and Video BA (Hons)
Photography MA
Photographic History and Practice MA
Media BA (Hons)
Fine Art (Hons)
Conteporary Practice MA
PhD

Honours and awards

Rome Scholarship, Sargant Fellowship, British School Rome (2001)

Nominated twice for the Paul Hamlyn Award (2002 and 2006)

Bryan Robertson Trust Artist Award (2006)

My Film ‘Are You Everybody?’ is nominated for the ‘Best short film’ category at ‘Doku Fest 10’ International Balkan Film festival (2011)

Conference attendance

Other forms of public presentation

Solo Exhibitions as follows:

2008 Apr, Arte Contemporanea, Alberto Peola Gallery, Torino, Italy

2011 Nov, Harvey Nichols Prism London, London

2012 July, Interlude National Museum of Kosova, Kosova

Group or selective shows as follows:

2008 Jan, “Book 2 ” U H galleries, Margaret Harvey Gallery, St. Albans, England

2008 Jan, “Bologna Art First Arte Fiera” International Fair of Contemporary Art, Bologna, Italy

2008 Aug, “Freeze 20” with Damien Hirst, Hospital club gallery, London

2008 Sept, “Behind the Walls” Noorderlicht 15 Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Holland

Toured to ‘Month of the Photography', November Bratislava, Slovakia

2009 Jan, www.throughmyeyes.org.uk: Imperial War Museum on-line exhibition “Through My Eyes”, London

2009 April, August Gallery as part of East 2009 (London Arts’ Festival), London

2009 May-August, “Fotografia” International Photography Festival of Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Rome

2009 Dec, “Mulliqi Prize 09” Gallery of Art Kosova, Prishtina, Kosova

2010 March-Sept,“Caravaggio e la Fuga” Palazzo Principe, Genoa, Italy

2010 March, “Are you Everybody” Cultural Xchange 羞羞视频, Leicester

2010 April, “Shifting Boarders” Himalaya Gallery Contemporary Art Centre, Chongqing, China

2010 May -June, Fotografia Europea Museo Frati Cappuccini, Reggio Emilia, Italy

2010 Oct, Perception on Reality, Fotohuis, Brugge, Belgium

2011 Sept, Mitrofana Grekova Museum, Novocherkassk – Rostov, Russia

2011 Sept, South Hill Park Arts Centre Bracknell, UK

2011 Nov, Creative Hinckley, Leicestershire, UK

2011 Dec, Bosnian and Hercegovina Embassy Exhibition, London

2012 Jan, ‘Objectives Objectivity’ Offcine Fotografche Rome Italy

2012 Sept, “Time, Place, and The Camera: Photographs at Work” curated by Christine Frisinghelli of Camera Austria, Kosova National Art Gallery, Kosova

Public Film Screenings as Follows:

2010 2 Sept University of Auckland, New Zealand Electroacoustic Symposium

2011 3 Feb SoundImageSound 8 Festival, Conservatory of Music, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California

2011 23-31 July Dokufest 10 International Film Festival Prizren

2012 27 Oct MANTIS FESTIVAL University of Manchester UK

2013 February University of Edinburgh

Externally funded research grants information

2001 Rome Scholarship, Sargant Fellowship, British School Rome £12,000
2006 AHRC small grant in creative and performing arts £19,998
2015 Leicester Council and Arts Patron Fund £22 000 Leicester the Drama
2017 German Government Art funding 40 000 Exhibition and book
2023 European Union funding 20 000 euros Exhibition and book

Internally funded research project information

ADH Research Leave Award 2012

Case studies

For example, my exhibition “Caravaggio e la Fuga” which exhibited 16 of my large photographs and ran from March – September 2010, had more than 20,000 visitors, many of whom bought the large book published about the exhibition containing a chapter on my work. Through the medium of the book, the images were also seen by readers who were unable to attend in person. The work also received extensive coverage in conventional media, including over 40 journals and newspapers in Italy. The exhibition was reviewed favourably in the Spectator (Sept 2010) in the UK. In all these ways, it is clear that it reached at least the existing audience for art.

But significant effort was also devoted to widening the appeal of the exhibition. The challenge was to reach a different art audience. The show was promoted on Facebook - a social network with over 400 million users world wide and 14 million in Italy. Game applications, Facebook ads, and other activities were designed to announce the exhibition appealing to universal concepts and aiming to share them in an accessible way. Facebook users were enticed to escape from everyday life and the city, and to respond to the evocative power of landscape, with my landscape photographs playing a key part alongside old masters.

There was also a downloadable application from the AppStore showing in iTunes. Visitors to the exhibition could down load the app and walk around the exhibition with the information audio information and then take it away as a virtual souvenir of great art historical value.

There was evidence therefore of the impact of my art work, that many people came because of these promotions, and that the impact of the exhibition extended beyond the gallery into people’s own homes.