PRESSURA IS BACK

Pressura 2024

Social Photography Colony

Curated by: Elton Koritari

Oda Garden, Gjuhadol, Shkodër

20.00

PRESSURA returns once again to the Albanian scene with an invitation for Albanian photographers to engage even more deeply with Social Photography, precisely because Pressura follows the best contemporary practices worldwide, drawing on social photography and its long-term impact on society.

The project also stimulates the creation of communities, starting with the artistic one, builds useful partnerships, and naturally not only promotes equality and fights classism, injustice, and so on, but in itself becomes a powerful voice for minorities and a mirror held up to the public of the human condition and that of the environment. The methodology used in Pressura is such that it mixes engagement between photographers with field workshops, masterclasses (including online) with work presentations (portfolios) and, as a conclusion, the realisation of a personal project for each participant, monitored by the curator but shared as a group at every stage.

A core objective of the project is that, alongside the investigative nature of their work toward the so-called objective truth, photographers should develop a sense deeply oriented toward storytelling as a tool that is both ancient and modern for telling the often complex reality of our region, authenticating reality according to their own ethics and conscience.

The training programme and the programme of activities are focused mainly on this objective. Producing an innovative, nomadic exhibition, in public settings and with a deeply installative and narrative character, exhibiting projects of authorial and authentic photojournalism that naturally contributes to raising awareness of the human condition, and that highlights for the public the efforts of civil society to become an active part of decision-making at every level, will be our aim again this year. Pressura also stimulates intercultural dialogue and investigates issues of social, gender, ethnic and other inequalities.

Press on the exhibition: PRESSURA, the colony of nomadic artists dedicated to social photography!

Pressura is a project initiated by Smart Balkans 2023 and Albanian Fokus, and is being carried out during this edition with the support of the Ministry of Economy, Culture and Innovation.

As every year, the main activities of the Pressura Residency are divided into Artists Meet and Public Meet. The main activity of Pressura thus consists of the art residency, conceived as nomadic — that is, workshops and lectures on the move, in the field, which is exactly the main focus of social photography. At least 3 Artists Meets will be organised during Pressura 2024 in various cities across Albania, from which at least 6 participating artists for the Pressura exhibitions will emerge. The lectures and meetings of this phase focus precisely on the human condition and develop the premises for shaping a photographer-artist inclined not only toward the news itself, but toward its contextualisation and authorial analysis.

Let's start from Shkodra, the cradle of Albanian photography. This is an occasion for reuniting the group of photographers engaged during Pressura 2023 and for the solo exhibition of our photographer Korab Basha at Galeri Oda, and of course this is an invitation to all Albanian photographers to join us in the colony this year. Our first Artists Meet takes place at Oda Garden, Gjuhadol, Shkodër.

Photos from the meeting in Shkodër:

The next meeting, i.e. the Pressura Public Meet, will take place during Tirana Photo Festival 2024.

You are all invited!