“Albanian portraits and landscapes – The view of Italian geographers and travelers between 1800 and 1900 from the photo collection of the Italian Association of Geographers” will be inaugurated on Friday, December 7 and remain open to the public until December 14
TIRANA, Dec. 5 – Pictures, books and maps by Italian geographers and travelers in the 19th and 20th centuries will be displayed in Tirana for one week, for the first time bringing a documented picture of Albania at that time. The exhibition “Albanian portraits and landscapes – The view of Italian geographers and travelers between 1800 and 1900 from the photo collection of the Italian Association of Geographers” will be inaugurated on Friday, December 7 and remain open to the public until December 14.
The documents and picture will feature expeditions in Albania by some of the most famous Italian geographers such as Antonio Baldacci (1867 – 1950), Roberto Almagiࠨ1884 – 1962), Aldo Sestini (1904-1988), Bruno Castiglioni (1898-1945). “All the invaluable documents, the majority of them unknown, are being displayed to the public for the first time, bringing an immediate and straightforward image of Albania in the first half of the 20th century,” says the Italian embassy in a statement.
The exhibition is organized by the Italian Association of Geographers, the Italian Institute of Culture in cooperation with the National Museum of History in Tirana. The exhibition will also feature the documentary “Albania – The country in front” directed by Albania’s Roland Sejko featuring Albania’s in the early 20th century through unknown images of the Italian Luce Institute and the Albanian Film Archive. The documentary will also be screened in Shkodra, Vlora and other towns. The exhibition is the concluding event the Italian embassy in Albania has held on the 100th anniversary of Albania’s independence. Activities organized by the Italian embassy in Tirana and Institute of Culture kicked off on Nov. 3 with the screening of a documentary by Albania’s Roland Sejko featuring the exodus of Albanians to Italy in the early 1990s just as the 45-year communist regime was collapsing. The La Nave degli Albanesi (The Ship) documentary was screened in the Albanian film festival.
The Italian Institute of Culture also participated in the Tirana Book Fair from November 14 to 18 with its own stand and a programme of events dedicated to the Arberesh community, which settled in southern Italy since the late 15th century after Skanderbeg’s death. Vivaldi’s Skanderbeg, an Italian-Albanian coproduction also made its premiere at the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet on November 18. Italianesi, a theatrical performance featuring the unknown tragedy of Italians imprisoned in Albania under the communist regime and their difficult return to Italy 40 years later, was featured on Nov. 21 and 22 in Tirana and Elbasan.
