Direction of “Onufri” entrusted to poet Parid Teferi誴

After the fourth edition of the Tirana Biennale, another cultural event will take place in the Albanian capital. The XVI edition of the International Exhibition of Visual Arts “Onufri” will kick off on December 24th. “Onufri 2009” is entrusted to poet and painter Parid Teferi詮 It’s the second time “Onufri” is directed by a poet, the first time was in 2007 when Ervin Hatibi was appointed in charge of the International Exhibition of Visual Arts. This decision raised a lot of polemics at the time since poets are believed to know nothing about visual arts, but in the end the event turned out just fine.
Poet and painter Parid Teferi詠(1972) was born and raised in Kavaja. From 1990 to 1994, he studied computer science at the University of Tirana and from 1994 to 1999, he studied economics at the Bocconi University of Milan, Italy. From 1999-2001, he served as head archivist at the library of the Don Calabria Institute in Rome, and in 2001 became curator of the visual arts section of the Cini Cultural Institute in Ferrara. He has exhibited his painting in Italy. In 2005, he returned to Albania to take part in the parliamentary elections as a candidate for the Republican Party in his native Kavaja.
Teferi詠has published two slender volumes of poetry: B쳫 me larg촩 (Made from a Distance), Tirana 1996, and Meqen촥 syt련Since the Eyes), Tirana 2003. His works have proven him to be among Albania’s major contemporary poets.
He has also published different translations of Dylan Thomas, Wallace Stevens, Maria Luisa Spaziani, Edoardo Sanguinetti, Andrea Zanzotto, Luis Cernuda, Vicente Aleixandre, John Ashbery, Tom Sleigh etc.