WHEN WALLS TURNED INTO SCREENS – THE NIGHTS OF DHËRMI AT GJON MILI IVAF 2025
A site-specific journey where stone, sea breeze, and light converged into living cinema.
From Korça to a Mythic Coast
After three unforgettable nights in Korça, where art had been translated into light upon the stone facades of the “Gjon Mili” museum and enriched by the rhythm of the city, the Gjon Mili International Video Art Festival (IVAF) had moved to another mythical space of Albania – the village of Dhërmi. Unlike the city, which had offered defined structures, built stages, and clear separations between art and audience, Dhërmi had opened the way to an entirely different experience. Here, walls had not confined – they had projected.
Where the Village Became the Screen
In this village nestled between mountain and sea, where every alley had been a fragment of history and every house had carried memory, art had not been placed on podiums but had merged with the body of stone, with the breath of air, and with the silence of caves. The festival had entered its second night, taking place where usually there had been no scenography and no staged shows – on the white facades of houses, at the foot of St. Demetrius Church, in the lively courtyards of the “Gjik Bixhili” school, and in the squares where young and old had gathered to share silence, now accompanied by a new illumination.
Three Nights When Space Breathed Art
From September 1 to 3, 2025, Dhërmi had not merely been a chosen site for projection – it had become the screen itself, the character, the welcoming spirit of works arriving from all over the world. Video art, documentaries, audiovisual performances, and short films had no longer occupied cinemas or galleries – they had breathed at the same time as the very spaces in which they appeared. In this way, the festival had made it impossible to separate art from environment – the two had been one.
Light Woven Into Stone
Alongside the rich artistic program, the magic of Dhërmi had rested in nature itself. As the sunset had stretched over the Ionian Sea and the air had filled with salt and the scent of wild herbs, the walls had begun to speak. The beams of the projectors had not clashed against a black screen, but had intertwined with the cracks of the stone, with footsteps approaching from afar, with the breath of the audience that had not watched from folding chairs, but had moved along with the work. This had been an art not consumed but lived.
A Journey Across Places
Korça
Monumental structures where images first met stone at the “Gjon Mili” museum.
Dhërmi
Organic forms—alleys, courtyards, facades—became the narrative body of light.
New York
At the end of September, the festival had concluded with its international presentation in Manhattan.
More Than an Event
These nights in Dhërmi had been more than a cultural event. They had been an embrace between people and place, between light and stone, between memory and imagination. Here, art had not only been something to be watched – it had been something to be felt in the very skin of the village. And this had been a call not only to see, but to pause, to listen, to experience – because in Dhërmi, walls had not divided: they had told stories in the language of the screen.
Korça → Dhërmi → New York
Bridging landscapes, cultures, and perceptions, this itinerant edition turns movement itself into a narrative engine—a festival that draws a line from mountain to sea to city, and invites audiences to walk it. Each stop reframes the work: stone courtyards become projectors, church facades become canvases, and urban skylines become closing credits. Artists don’t merely present; they translate, adapting to new light, languages, and local rhythms. Viewers arrive not as spectators but as co-authors, bringing their histories to meet the images. In the crossings—between places, people, and forms—the festival sketches a living map of storytelling, one that expands with every encounter and only truly exists while it is shared..
When Walls Turned Into Screens — Photo Album
Dhërmi at Gjon Mili IVAF 2025 — the village, the light, and the audience in one living scene.
