The University of Arts of Tirana, in cooperation with the Italian Cultural Institute, hosted the Schermo a schermo /Ekrane Përballë (Screen to Screen) Festival which screened a selection of films and videos by Italian and Albanian artists from the 1960s to date. If, in Italy, art films mainly have their roots in the ‘60s, in the new avant-garde era featuring artistic movements such as those of the Scuola di Piazza del Popolo and Arte Povera, in Albania, except for sporadic cases, audio-visual experimentation started from the 1990s on. The selection of Italian films was screened in parallel with the Albanian film production with the aim of comparing the artists and works of the two Countries, geographically close but culturally different, while exploring affinities and differences, thematic peculiarities and convergences. All the films, produced with different techniques and first on analog supports and later on digital supports, represent the evolving film-making styles and technologies in Italian and Albanian video art.
The curators of the Festival, in addition to presenting and introducing films and videos, also illustrated to the students the historic and artistic context in which they were created.
