Oda, non riesco ad essere infelice 2009Tirana“Oda, I can’t be unhappy” The wish to turn an abandoned public place at the national theatre of Tirana, a sort of small hut, into a new welcoming and informal meeting place for the inauguration of the Tirana Film Festival. This was the idea that animated the project Oda, which means “guest room” in Albanian. The sentence “Oda, non riesco ad essere infelice” (“Oda, I can’t be unhappy”), a paradoxical phrase installed on the roof, overturned the abandoned condition of the small structure and turned it into an improvised set for meetings and interviews, a place for guests to take part and for projects and ideas to be presented. It was here that we presented the project “Albania 1e1000”, issue zero of an Italian-Albanian magazine born from the collaboration with a group of Albanian students in Italy. In 2020 the National Theatre of Tirana, an important example of Italian architecture of the 1930s, was unfortunately demolished. With Nico Angiuli, Roberto dell’Orco, Matteo Fraterno, Petros Lekapinos, Matteo Locci, Michele Loiacono, Bennie Meek, Piro Micha, Heldi Pema, Marianna Quaranta, Lorenzo Romito, Panaghiotis Samsarelos, Piero Vereni, Mary Zygouri. Promoted by: Principi Attivi – Regione Puglia, Tirana International Film Festival, Euro Mediterranean Arts, Naples. In collaboration with: Stalker/Osservatorio Nomade. Images: Roberto dell’Orco.