Rina goes riot
Being creative producer of a Wall Street Journal fashion shoot, publishing a comics-like magazine full of music references, running campaigns for renewable energy - you name it, Rina Meta does it.
Difficult to do TenTen interview with Rina because we know her for couple of decades or more. So one would think all subjects have been discussed, all songs have been shared and all references have been referred further. But Rina Meta is good at meta, in the most urban meaning of the word, where "meta" has become shorthand for anything beyond the obvious. It's like when a movie winks at itself or when your Instagram caption jokes about captions—super aware, super meta. Super Rina Meta.
Providing a meta-narration for an entire nation.
She has started as journalist covering all things urban in weekly JAVA, covered culture in daily newspaper Express (back when we had real printed newspapers), then worked on bunch of cool initiative in public diplomacy, when our diplomacy was cool, like #InstaKosova competition, books like Kosovo in Unesco and Wanderlust. Rina then worked on bunch of really good campaigns in energy sector, open data and other stuff for American-Kosovar Millennium Challenge Corporation. She then went to launch a collective Andrrat Moderne with Nita Deda, doing some crazy gigs, and then started a magazine with funky title (with illustrations by Tadi) called “Yeah! Pizza! With Girls”. She just delivered as a creative producer a fashion photo shoot in Albania for prestigious Wall Street Journal magazine (we covered it). She also curates content for a radio project Radio Kosova e Lirë at Montez Radio.
In between all of this, she studied in Bangkok, moved with her hubby to London, spent summer days in the most magic, desolate nature corners in Albania, spend winter days clubbing in most magic, hidden clubs in capital and non-capital cities of the world. Oh, she also came up with our own title of podcast Suzanne. So, totally Yeah! Totally Pizza! As with her life and work, Rina goes riot in this week’s TenTen.
1. Rina, you worked in Kosovo, you studied in Thailand, you now live in London. If you would have to be stuck in one of these three without the possibility of traveling anywhere else for 10 years, which one would it be?
Hey Suzi! It's London. The mess I haven’t figured out yet. I experience it as a new lover, we still only make love, go to exhibitions, bookshops, and on long walks together. It’s too fresh, too exciting to let it go.
2. Well, if you’re stranded with just one book, one song, and one film. What are they?
You’re gonna be generous and let me be stranded with a whole publishing house instead. I discovered Fitzgeraldo shortly before moving to London and have been reading a lot of their titles. It’s a world I would not mind being stranded with. And then Love Thy Will Be Done by Prince for its wonderful, enchanting, religious, sexy atmosphere it always brings in. Sans Soleil of Chris Marker, the film. A wonderful-surreal-experimental travel documentary in places like Japan, Iceland, San Francisco and Guinea Bissau. It's non-linear and watching it feels more like memory, not coherent, in accord with a dream-like emotion.
3. But what if you could only pick one—karaoke night in Bangkok, raki with friends in Prishtina or a clubbing night in London?
My nostalgic self would have to invent a time machine and mash things up a little here and enable both yourself and myself a transport to a clubbing weekend in Prishtina in late 2019 and early 2020 when time was elastic and we didn’t know all that we know now. But we’re not going back in time when having a sweet plan for a massive clubbing night in London just now.. I love how extremely quick we were to make this particular night into a ritual!!! Good times into rituals zemër.
4. In the world of creativity, do you lean more towards structure or spontaneity?
Oh god! Spontaneity, which in the moment it becomes an idea and starts taking the shape of a work will have to suffer my obsession with structure, only to be epilogued in sweet chaos. I don’t like ending things I love so I invite chaos to mess with all ends.
5. Looking at the creative scene in Prishtina, what’s the one thing you think it still needs to break through internationally?
The audacity!!! hahahahah but no, really, I like when Prishtina keeps things private and doesn't care to break through internationally.
6. If you could collaborate with any three artists or creatives (alive or dead), who would they be and what would you create together?
I love working with friends, in familiar contexts, with people I know and admire. I love seeing how something so intimate, so familiar to me can become evocative and resonant when in contact with the world. So, here’s my top of the head collabs:
- A photography book with my friend Ereblina Elezaj who travels the world for work and familiarizes herself with the strangest, most beautiful worlds.
- I would love a summer of access to Astrit Ismaili’s illustrations, photography and poetry to see where it sets us.
- A magazine with Suzi, now!
- I’m gonna extra Tracy Emin here, coz she’s my fantasy friend. We’re together on a day-long trip in cold Margate. We start the day with a dip in the North Sea, a warm tea and a long walk where I take photos and notes and we make magic. I’m currently reading “Strangeland” a recollection of her memories and I’m frequently dreaming random sequences of her life.
7. If you could blend two cultures (music, fashion, art) to create a new creative movement, which would you choose?
Architecture from Memory meets Classical Music from Memory.
8. What’s your snack or drink that fuels your creativity when working on a project?
I don’t snack. I’m about long black coffee that gets awful, and cold, and makes me shiver with bitterness.
9. If you could have one superpower to enhance your creativity, what would it be and how would you use it?
Immediate historical insights to topics, themes, practices I am interested in and I love to work with. And ofc, an integrated, seamless scanner/printer for all the visual ideas my brain bursts with.
10. If you could tell your creative journey using only three emojis, which ones would you choose?
Not my journey, but my moody fantasy animals 🦄🦥🦚.