Korça opens its doors for the “Gjon Mili” International Video Arts Festival

2025-08-28 09:57:00, Aktualitet CNA

Korça opens its doors for the “Gjon Mili” International Video

The Gjon Mili International Video Art Festival is an innovative event focused on video art. Created in honor of Gjon Mili – an artist and photographer renowned for his experimental techniques – this festival brings together artists, filmmakers and audiences from around the world.

Organized as a traveling festival between Albania and the United States, it serves as a platform for avant-garde works that challenge the boundaries of the visual. The rich program includes video art exhibitions, film screenings, workshops and seminars, fostering cultural exchange and inspiring new creative perspectives.

The city of Korça has opened its doors to one of the most special cultural events of the year, the third edition of the “Gjon Mili” International Video Arts Festival, with the theme “The Skin of Light”. This festival, which has already become a tradition in the birthplace of the great master of photography, returns to bring contemporary art and technology into a surreal experience, where light, memory and time take new forms in the hands of international artists.

This year, the festival takes place on August 27, 28 and 29 at the Gjon Mili Museum of Photography, a space that was not chosen by chance. The organizers emphasize that the philosophy of this edition is directly related to the beginning, to the place where Mili's great inspiration came to life, creating a powerful dialogue between the photographer's heritage and contemporary artistic expression.

The presence of new works in this museum becomes a symbolic act: where light became a creative language for Gjon Mili, now it finds a new interpretation by artists who experiment with the forms and technologies of our time.

The program of this edition includes sixty-two artists selected from different countries around the world, who will present works from a wide spectrum of creativity. The public will have the opportunity to follow experimental video art, short documentaries, animations, audiovisual installations and creations that challenge the traditional boundaries of art.

Their work focuses on the multisensory treatment of light, time and memory, transforming these concepts into new sensory experiences that aim to transcend ordinary perception. The title “The Skin of Light” is not simply a poetic metaphor, but a guide to the entire program: it suggests the touch of light, its transformation into a skin that envelops memory and time, turning art into a living body form.

The “Gjon Mili” Festival is more than an artistic event; it is a living platform where art and technology meet. Seeing light as an aesthetic element, as a technological tool, but also as a symbol of social transformation, this edition aims to bring an experience that is not limited to cinemas or exhibition halls, but extends to the public’s consciousness as an invitation to think differently about the past and the future. Korça, known for its rich cultural tradition and for the place it occupies in the country’s artistic history, thus turns into an international laboratory of contemporary art.

This festival has an impact not only in the field of art, but is also an important step for the city itself and Albanian culture. It brings to Korça not only renowned artists and curators from the international scene, but also numerous visitors, enlivening the cultural life and giving a new impetus to cultural tourism. Over the years, the festival is becoming a point of reference, an event that places Korça at the center of the cultural map of the region and beyond, connecting the legacy of Gjon Mili with the art of today and the vision of tomorrow./ CNA