Annual Onufri exhibition fails to hold 21st edition

TIRANA, Dec. 4 – For the first time in two decades, the annual Onufri international visual arts competition will not be held because lack of funding from the Culture Ministry. The Onufri exhibition which was supposed to hold its 21st edition this December has brought together Albanian and foreign artists for two decades.
The Culture Ministry which has confirmed the annual Onufri exhibition will not be held says “this year will be a moment of reflection on the 20-year progress of the event with curators, artists and critics to coordinate energy on what has happed and what’s going to come.”
Rubens Shima, a former director of the National Gallery and the curator of two Onufri editions described the ministry’s decision to close the most important visual arts events as scandalous and irresponsible.
Last year, Berlin-based Albanian artist Silva Agostini was announced the winner of the Onufri 2013 international visual arts competition. A jury composed of three artists awarded Agostini the first prize for her “Red in common” video exploring the human body and the skin dividing the inner and outer part.
Twelve artists were selected to participate in the Onufri visual arts competition which in this 20th anniversary comes as an international event focused on the ‘Praise of Doubt’ concept. The annual competition named after Onufri, Albania’s famous 16th century icon painter, is showcasing at the National Arts gallery artworks by young contemporary artists from Albania, Kosovo, Italy, France and Bulgaria.
Praise of Doubt, proposed by Italian curator Claudio Cravero for the new edition of the Onufri Prize, investigated some of the new artistic practices and areas of research, demonstrating their links to today’s changeable political situation, as a mirror of the constant doubt. In the selected artworks, doubt emerged as something that inevitably affects everybody.