About ‘Sotiri’ Prize

“SOTIRI “, International Prize for Young Photographers is the new Lindart & Anima Cultural Center (CCLA) project that aims to build a new tradition for the development of  photography in Albania. This cultural project include Albanian and international young photographers, in a competition that aims to promote photography as a language of urban movements and as an expressive meaning in development. “SOTIRI” Prize is build as an exhibition of photography in Korca and Tirana including a panel discussion to create a sustainable climate of collaboration and partnership between artists and the communities they belong. This event brings together young photographers from Albania and abroad, in a competition under the name of Kristaq Sotiri (1883-1970) from the city of Korca, whose creativity documented artistically the Albanian city life, the cultural activity and their protagonists after the models of American style. Sotiri was one of the first photographers who lead the foundation of Albanian tradition in this art field, together with other big names of Albanian photography.

First Edition.
This first edition of “SOTIRI” international prize for young photographers was hold in Korca (Albania) from May 15 till June 5. 2008,and will be open in Tirana in September 2008. This exhibition reflects on the history and its facts in relation to artists and contemporary realities they belong to. The concept ‘Save this’ try to give attention to artistic practices related to the documentation of reality through photography. The process of saving a precious moment that overpasses fugitive beauty becomes a station for reflections and new approaches.
Photography becomes the ideal justification for putting attention on history, space and time, like signs of reality.

Save this!
History is about negotiation in between documents.
We document everything we think is important; everyone does that, personally, locally, nationally, globally….universally.
The fact that a photograph is always a reproduction of something that at a certain point of time has had a real existence leads the viewer towards the illusion, that this something is alive and contains a certain degree of “truth”. What the viewer sees in a photograph is reality in a past stage .Yet at the same time, this illustrated past has a present existence of its own.
Shooting the present reality means responding to contemporary time which has already become the past. This leads to special ways in creating facts: the fragments of time are blocks of present and reality.
Now, for certain period of time, I have been interested in the phenomena of searching in the periphery of our attention. I tried to gather facts which intrigued me some how, because they were different, unnoticed or simply ungraspable. After emphasizing this “marginal” information and putting it in the center, it has to be revised and rethought, like history need to be.
Placing the fact next to its history, the space between the two becomes important, if not most important, it becomes the space where two identities meet and coalesce. Within this resonance, new meanings can reveal and articulate themselves. The metamorphoses of these two entities into something different it’s like the concepts, being subject of revision in time and context, their shape or meaning is not identical in two spaces: this is the threshold where the fact is undergoing a permanent change and recreates itself.
History is about negotiation between facts.
When images become the testimonies of these facts and reflect that common certain degree of “truth”, they can be unforgettable signs. There are moments and facts that can die without attention. Others can overpass the threshold of anonymity and become important material to  be saved, saving in this way the time, the place, objects and subjects, ungraspable signs of their personality, it’s like a make-over of a identical situation.  This make-over becomes an image of the history, a document from the past, a fact of the present.
If you find yourself interested in the relation between the past and the present as well in those between “reality” and imagination, you can catch facts “in between”, images of personal histories that at the end of the day become part of the history, of which we all are testimonies.

Alketa Kurrizo.
Curator.

Mbi Çmimin “SOTIRI”

“SOTIRI “, eshte nje konkurs nderkombetar per fotografe te rinj, i cili organizohet nga CCLA dhe Projekti 5.6. Ai synon te ndertoje nje tradite te re te zhvillimit dhe promovimit te fotografise ne Shqiperi. Ky projekt kulturor do te mbledhe fotografe te rinj shqiptar dhe nderkombetare, per te promovuar fotografine si nje forme e shprehjes dhe dinamikes se artit bashkekohor, e shoqerise ne zhvillim.
Ky aktivitet do te sjell te parin Çmim Ndekombetar te Fotografise per te rinje ne Shqiperi. Çmimi ”SOTIRI” perfshin hapjen e ekspozites te fotografise ne Korçe dhe me tej Tirane dhe mbajtjen e nje panel diskutimi per fotografine.
Aktiviteti mban emrin e Kristaq Sotirit (1883-1970), fotografit korçar, i cili u formua si fotograf ne SHBA, krijmtaria e tij portretizoi qytetarine shqiptare, jeten kulturore dhe protagonistet e saj sipas stilit amerikan te kohes. Ai ishte nje nga profesionistet e pare, qe ndertuan traditen e fotografise ne Shqiperi, bashke me emra te tjere te medhenj te fotografise shqiptare.

Edicioni i pare.
Edicioni i pare i Çmimit “SOTIRI” reflektoi mbi historine dhe faktet, qe e vertetojne ate, mbi menyren se si ata veprojne mbi artistet dhe realitetet bashkekohore, te cilave ata u perkasin. Koncepti “Ruaje kete”  u perpoq te ktheje vemendjen te praktikat artistike, qe lidhen me dokumentimin e realitetit nepermjet fotografise, procesit te “ruajtjes” se nje momenti te vyer, qe kapercen bukurine e momentit dhe behet stacion per reflektim dhe qasje te reja.

Ruaje kete !
Histora eshte marreveshje dokumentesh.
Ne dokumentojme cdo gje qe mendojme se eshte e rendesishme. Kete e bejme te gjithe, kudo:  lokalisht, kombetarisht, globalisht...
Fakti qe fotografia  eshte gjithmone riprodhim i dickaje, qe ne nje moment te caktuar ka ekzistuar,  e con shikuesin drejt iluzionit se gjithçka eshte reale dhe permban nje “perqindje te larte te se vertetes.” Ajo qe ata gjejne aty eshte realiteti ne kohen e shkuar, edhe pse ne vetvete kjo e shkuar e ilustruar ka nje ekzistence te tashme.
Te “gjuash” te tashmen  do te thote t’i pergjigjesh njekohesisht edhe asaj, edhe dickaje qe eshte tanime e shkuar. Kjo eshte nje rruge e veçante per te krijuar fakte: fragmente te kohes, qe ndertojne te shkuaren dhe te sotmen.
Prej kohesh kam qene e interesuar per fenomene, qe vendosen ne periferine e vemendjes sone. Jam munduar te mbledh fakte, qe ne nje fare menyre me kane intriguar, sepse ishin ndryshe, te padukshem ose thjesht te pakapshem. Duke theksuar kete informacion te ”lene menjane”, duke e vene ne qender te vemendjes, ai nevojitet te rishihet, te rimendohet, ashtu si historia ndjen te beje ndonjehere.
Kur faktet vendosen prane historise se tyre, hapesira midis behet shume e rendesishme, ne mos me e rendesishmja; ajo behet hapesira ku dy entitete takojne bashkekohesine, brenda nje rezonance ku domethenie te reja mund te artikulojne vetveten.
Ashtu si konceptet behen subjekt i rishikimeve ne kohe dhe permbajtje, domethenia dhe “hija” e imazheve nuk jane te njejta ne dy hapersira te ndryshme: ky eshte pragu ku fakti ben nje ndryshim te qendrueshem dhe rikrijon veten.
Historia eshte marreveshje faktesh.
Kur imazhet behen deshmimtare te fakteve dhe reflektojne ate mase te perbashket te se vertetes, mund te jene shenja te paharrueshme. Ka momente dhe fakte qe mund te vdesin pa u vene re.Te tjere mund te kalojne pragun e anonimitetit dhe te behen material per t’u ruajtur.
Duke ruajtur kohen, vendin, objekte dhe subjekte, shenja te pakapshme te qenesise se tyre, e gjithe kjo si rindodhi e nje situate identike behet imazh per historine, dokumet nga e shkuara,fakt i  se sotmes.
Nese jeni te interesuar ne marredheniet midis se shkuares dhe te sotmes dhe atyre mes realitetit dhe imagjinates, ju mund te kapni fakte te ndermjetme, imazhe te historive personale, qe ne fund te fundit jane pjese te historise, deshmimtare te se ciles jemi te gjithe.

Alketa Kurrizo.
Curator.