THE ‘GJON MILI’ INTERNATIONAL VIDEO ART FESTIVAL BRINGS THREE DAYS OF GLOBAL CREATIVITY TO KORÇA

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Curated links from YouTube and news portals covering the 3rd Gjon Mili International Video Art Festival (Korçë, 27–29 August 2025).

Korçë — festival night projection over the street — Korçë by night — projections across façades.

Korça, long known as one of Albania’s cultural capitals, has once again found itself at the crossroads of tradition and experimentation. For three days, the city has returned to the international art stage with the third edition of the International Video Art Festival, an event that blends image, sound, and innovation into a living dialogue between past and present.

The festival began where it first took root, inside the walls of the “Gjon Mili” Museum, a symbolic home named after the Albanian-born photographer celebrated worldwide for his groundbreaking light experiments. It is here, in this emblematic setting, that the festival reaffirms its mission: to merge Korça’s artistic heritage with contemporary voices and to place the city firmly on the global cultural map.

This year’s edition carries the theme “Skin of Light” and brings together 62 artists from across the world. Alongside them stand some of Albania’s most notable names, all presenting works that traverse the boundaries of genre and medium. From video installations and short films to documentaries and immersive audiovisual experiments, the festival opens a new window on experimental art, making it more accessible to the Albanian public while connecting Korça with a broader international audience.

Projection beam and silhouettes in motion — Light, motion, and silhouettes in dialogue.

Festival founder Yllka Gjollesha describes the project as a conscious effort to reshape perceptions of experimental cinema. “We wanted to bring the festival back to its origins, to the ‘Gjon Mili’ Museum, where it first began,” she explains. “The selection of artists revolves around this year’s theme, ‘Skin of Light.’ What we want is to transform the mentality surrounding experimental film. Video art is not only engaging for its poetic imagery, but it also has the power to inspire creators working in other genres, from narrative cinema to documentary. These are moments of deep inspiration.”

Beyond the museum, the program unfolds across several venues in Korça. The recently reconstructed Flag House serves as one of the central locations, offering artists a chance to interact with the architecture of a revitalized landmark. The “Andon Zako Çajupi” Theater also plays host, screening short films and documentaries from both local and international directors.

The choice of these venues emphasizes the city itself as part of the artistic narrative, transforming Korça into a stage where the historic and the contemporary intertwine.

Audience gathering in front of a projected wall — Audiences gathering across the historic center.

A particularly significant contribution comes from actress and director Suela Bako, who curated the feature film segment. Her selection includes notable premieres, among them a work dedicated to the memory of the beloved Albanian actor Pandi Raidhi. Another highlight is director Bujar Alimani’s documentary about an Albanian painter who emigrated to the United States during the communist dictatorship.

Filmed almost entirely within a single room filled with the artist’s paintings, the film offers an intimate portrait of exile, memory, and identity. “The festival is not just a video art event,” Bako emphasizes. “It spills across forms—cinema, sound, and audiovisual experiment. Experiencing the sound is as vital as watching the image, and in these works, the two are inseparable.”

The three-day festival thus becomes more than a cultural calendar event. It is an immersive experience that transforms Korça into a laboratory of ideas, where boundaries dissolve between image and sound, artist and audience, tradition and experimentation. For visitors, the city itself becomes a canvas, alive with screenings, performances, and discussions that place them at the heart of an evolving artistic dialogue.

What makes this year’s edition especially resonant is its theme, “Skin of Light.” It invites audiences not only to watch but to reflect: on how art touches life, how memory is illuminated through creativity, and how light itself—so central to Gjon Mili’s work—becomes a metaphor for the fragile, permeable surface of human experience.

For three days, Korça is transformed into a meeting point for global voices and local traditions, a city where experimentation is not a departure from heritage but its natural continuation. The International Video Art Festival confirms that Albania’s cultural landscape is not only alive but evolving—capable of connecting past and present, the local and the international, through the universal language of art.

Korça Days — Activities at Gjon Mili IVAF 2025

Highlights from screenings, mappings, and public gatherings at the “Gjon Mili” Museum, Korça.