Fokus Award 2022

FOKUS AWARD 2022

13th Edition – Theme: “Tjetri / The Other”

“FOKUS AWARD” continues its tradition as the most important festival of Albanian artistic photography and reaches its 13th edition with many new features and events, in Fier and in Tirana. The Festival’s opening officially crowns the annual competition organized with the participation of hundreds of Albanian photographers, from the Albanian lands as well as many photographers and art lovers from all over the world, but at the same time it also raises the curtain on parallel exhibitions and meetings or conferences with some of the best photographers in the world. Fokus Award has, over the years, continuously been a showcase and an expression of the strength, complexity and fragility of Albanian photography, with a wide community of artists around it, but even more, with a clear flux of thoughts, ideas and debates about the artistic and human sensibility of the moment. And it is precisely the moment to add strength to the internationalization of Albanian photography, as much as to acquire the best world experience through the artistic exchange that the festival enables, this year even more than any other year. And further, to grow and strengthen that community which, already around Fokus Award, gathers each year in a tribute to the beautiful art of photography.

To the annual thematic competition of artistic photography, this edition has added competitions for six other categories which will be exhibited alongside the main theme, and which are: Fashion & Lifestyle; Nature; Portrait; Press & News; Wedding; Street Photography. The very high participation of photographers from the region and the world shows once again that interest around the Festival is ever growing — from 420 applications across all categories, the exhibitions at the “Vilson Kilica” Art Gallery, “Kalo Gallery”, “Bylis Theatre”, and the open-air exhibition at the archaeological site of Apollonia will show works by 146 photographers from all over the world, as well as a solo exhibition by photographer Francesco Cito, the exhibition “Masters of Italian Photography” with 26 Italian authors, etc.

The main exhibition of Fokus Award 2022 is also the theme of the competition, titled “The Other”. The curatorial concept for this section of the festival comes this year from curator Vlora Demiri: “From the perspective of the modern world, this concept is built upon resistance, war, death, pain, tragedy, and it seems that where these occur, the other may appear at any moment. Delving deep, we understand that in fact, between I and the other, there exists a paradox that makes us understand that, although they are concepts of opposite poles, at the same time they complete one another”.

The winner of the “FOKUS AWARD 2022” PRIZE receives a monetary value of 1000 EURO

Festival Program:

Tirana:
23 September 2022 – 18:00 – ABA Center – Tirana

Press conference / Meeting with the well-known Italian photographer Francesco Cito.

23 September 2022 – 20:00 – “Kalo” Gallery – Tirana. Opening of the exhibition “History Remains” – Francesco Cito

Francesco Cito was born in Naples, Italy, in 1949 and is among the few Italian photographers to hold two World Press Photo awards (the most important international award for photography). Ferdinando Scianna describes him as – “The best Italian photojournalist of this time. He has the instinct for facts, the passion for storytelling, the ability to make essentiality pass through images, with the power of synthesis and visual precision”. After his beginnings as a freelance photographer, he emigrated to London in 1975, the year in which he took his first cover for the “Sunday Times” magazine. At the age of 30 he was one of the first photojournalists to reach occupied Afghanistan clandestinely, walking more than 1200 kilometers with various guerrilla groups (Mujahideen). Since then he has covered, as a correspondent for many international newspapers and magazines, the bloody conflicts in Lebanon, in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, etc. In Italy he was mainly involved in reportage related to the facts of the Mafia and the Camorra. From 1980 until today, besides having been wounded three times (twice by Israeli soldiers and once by Palestinian rebels), he has reported and published from various fronts countless reportages in national and international news newspapers and magazines such as Epoca, l’Europeo, Panorama, L’Espresso, Il Venerdì di Repubblica, La Sette, Corriere della Sera, Life, Stern, Die Zeit, the Sunday Times magazine, The Observer, The Independent magazine, Paris Match, Figaro and many others. He has published several books and opened many exhibitions all over the world. Worth noting here is his special connection with Albania, and especially his several years of work on the phenomenon of the Kanun, work published in several magazines and in a dedicated book. He is exhibited for the first time in Albania in an exhibition with his cycle “History Remains”.

Fier:

24 September 2022 – 18:00

“Vilson Kilica” Gallery, Fier.
Photography exhibition on the theme “Tjetri – The Other” (Floor 1). Exhibition of the other categories of Fokus Award 2022 (Floor 2)

24 September 2022 – 19:30

“Bylis Theatre”, Fier – Central Hall.
Exhibition: “Ambassadors of Italian Photography in Albania” – In collaboration with FIOF – Italian Photography Fund Orvieto, one of the most important associations of the sector in Italy.

24 September 2022 – 20:00

“Bylis Theatre”, Fier – Theatre Hall
The FOKUS AWARD 2022 Awards Ceremony

PARTICIPANTS in FOKUS AWARD 2022 (All categories): Afshoon Atefeh / Agi Lutolli Sali / Ali Sabih Kadhim / Alia Zeni / Amitava Chandra / Arsovska Maja / Arsovski Boro / Ascione Rosario / Abbasi Avin / Baki Ergys / Balestrucci Sabino / Balla Roland / Ballta Olsi / Bardh-I (Rafet) Jonuzi-T / Basha Korab / Basone Santo / Beqiraj Roland / Berisha Agron / Berisha Albiona / Berisha Shpëtim / Beshiri Erjon / Bisić Goran / Bllaca Alba / Bogdani Nensi/ Borelli Nuzia / Brahimi Denisa / Bucciaglia Cristina / Burra / Bychko Taras / Çaka Bleron / Campo Fabio / Canale Claudia / Cardoni Giuseppe / Cavaliere Antonio / Çavolli Agnesa / Chandra Amitava / Chifari Marcello / Çmeta Albert / Coghe Alessio / De Rosa Salvatore / Dedvukaj Albana / Demaj Lulzim / Di Benedetto Cinzia / Di Ciaula Francesca / Dino Sualdo / Domi Alban / Dora Tsitsikli / Duka Fadil / Fezollari Ardian / Fona Genc / Fornaciari Michele / Fornelli Pierpaolo / Fortini Biagio / Gardiman Franco / Gashi Bujar / Gega Ileana / Gjino Eduart / Gorgoglione Pasquale / Grieco Luigi / Grubi Florent / Halili Henor / Haliti Helidon/ Hamitaj Etleva / Hamiti Besnik / Havolli Altin / Haxha Kushtrim / Himawan Rahmad / Hoda Tina / Hojati Majid / Hoxha Eliza / Ibrahimi Ruzhdi / Ileana Gega / Imami Rromir / Ivezic Robert / Kaceli Edmond / Kadhim Ali Sabih / Kantarxhiu Luan / Kapetanovic Amer / Karabegovic Ognjen / Karaliti Erblina / Kaziaj Merlin / Kır Berk / Krasniqi Kushtrim / Krasniqi Uran / Kucheriavyy Stepan / Kula Griselda / Kurti Irma / Llapashtica Arben / Llukaçi Romir Nelo / Mavriqi Arian / Mëziu Florije Përvetica / Mëziu Metush / Mjeda Luka / Mobarak Yasser Alaa / Morabito Livio / Mortazavi Mostafa / Mosca Francesco / Murina Berat / Musiq Elsaida / Myzeqari Orjeta / Nikolla Rain / Pashaj Erzen / Perotti Graziano / Picciariello Michele / Pizi Diego / Postoli Eriola / Prenkocaj Vinko / Prifti Klaudjo / Pupa Dori / Qerimi Bashkim / Qesari Vasil / Rahmad Himawan / Ramoja Era / Recchione Regina Fernanda / Rexha Shkelzen / Ridolfi Enrica / Russo Ruggiero / Saracino Maria Anna / Sarti Alessandro / Selba Erlind / Sensi Michele / Shala Naim / Shishko Roni / Shpëtim Berisha / Shpuza Rozafa / Shukriu Valtida / Sope Nazlije / Sorochuk Viktoriya / Spahiu Afrim / Stampoliadis Foivos / Stosic Maja / Sulaj Vlasov / Tessa Barbara / Toska Ina / Trappolino Luciana / Troshani Jetmir / Vasiljevic Igor / Vela Ergys / Velaj Fate / Volodymyr Voznyy / Yasser Alaa Mobarak / Zaçe Mauro / Zeneli Enklajd / Zhurda Franc / Zitoli Alessia / Zitoli Benedetto

ORGANIZED BY: “Albania Fokus Center” / With the Financial support of: the Ministry of Culture of Albania, the Municipality of Fier, BenArt Print / In partnership with the Fier Art Gallery, FIOF, EJAlbum / Artistic Director: Arben Alliaj / Project manager: Saimir Ahmeti / Curators: Elton Koritari, Burim Myftiu, Osman Demiri; Curator of the exhibition “The Other”: Vlora Demiri / Competition jury: Francesco Cito, Armando Babani, Tima Jam, Achilleas Tziakos, Roberto Colacciopo, Arton Humolli.

FOKUS AWARD 2022