The Albanian Calls

May 11^th the Independent School for the City hosted the screening of Anneke Abhelakhs documentary film ‘The Albanian Calls’ which featured dozens of non-Albanian architects talking about their mostly rewarding experiences of designing and building in Edi Rama’s Albania. The screening triggered a fierce reaction from several Albanian architects in the audience, precisely against the kind of political leadership that was celebrated in the film as creating a uniquely welcoming for contemporary architects, and against that Albanians themselves were completely left out. What is going on here? 

The film is part of a whole series of publications and books that document how Edi Rama, first as the mayor of Tirana, then as Albania’s prime minister invited adventurous architectural practices from all corners of the globe to bring his country from its isolated, Stalinist status that it held until 1991 into the 21^st century, and about the extraordinary iconic architecture it has thus far produced. Edi Rama has shown himself intensely engaged and knowledgeable about architecture and is in constant discussion with the designers, whom he refers to as ‘my arch army’. This close relationship was evident at the two ‘Bread & Heart’ festivals in Tirana, where architects presented and discussed their work for Albania moderated by international critics and curators, mainly Dutch, who until this event had been noted for their idealist views on democracy, sustainability, critical thinking, and social justice.

When the last Bread & Heart festival took place in Tirana on June 3d, with most of the people figured in the movie showing their projects to each other and to those Albanians that had paid €200,00 for entrance, a massive protest movement had been taking form in the streets of Tirana. The trigger was that Edi Rama’s government had signed over ownership of Sazan Island, an abandoned Military base and now one of the last remaining natural coast habitats of the mediterranean to a group of investors, among which Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, daughter and son in law of Donald J. Trump, planning to transform the island into an immense resort for the very rich.

The protests against this development spread from people with ecological interests at heart, to a much broader movement against state sponsored corruption, against the ‘selling out’ of Albania to foreign investment, against the authoritarian government style of Edi Rama, and against the positioning of Edi Rama as militantly pro-Israel (Albania is one of three European countries with a seat on Trumps ‘Board of Peace’ for the rebuilding of Gaza. The others are Belarus and Bulgaria). As we write this, the protests are still going on, with on average 5 to 10% of the population on the streets and has been called the Flamingo Revolution, named after the Flamingoes whose breeding grounds are threatened by Edi Rama’s real estate projects.

In its scale and length, and the broadening scope of the protests, from single-issue to the demand of a whole new governmental regime, but also in the character of the protests as that of a temporary city taking over public space day after day, with its own hospitals, kitchens, libraries etc. the Flamingo Protests fall in line with a whole series of pro-democracy protests, like the Maidan protests, the Umbrella protests in Hong Kong, Gezi Park in Istanbul (also set off by one too many ‘iconic’ projects by an authoritarian leader) and of course Occupy Wall Street. A pedigree of protest that Crimson documented in the exhibition ‘Can You Hear the People Sing’ in 2015.

The question that the architecture community – to which we feel we belong - must ask itself is: how can it be that it has misjudged the situation in Albania so badly? How come we ourselves needed the dissenting voices at a film screening to wake us up to this? In the coming months we hope to work with our Albanian friends to address this question and how to move forward. Keep you posted! In the short term we wholeheartedly support the people on the streets of Tirana!

The Albanian Calls
The movie "The Albanian Calls" was one of three parts of the narrative in the 2025 Albanian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. It is a feature-length video essay, that captures the discourse surrounding what it means to be an international architect in contemporary Albania, exploring both opportunities and challenges. It examines the agency of architects, the shifting relationship between public and private space, and the intersection of architecture and politics. The Albanian Calls investigates how architecture shapes Albania’s emerging identity, while at the same time how the country’s unique architectural environment prompts a reflection on the state of the practice as a whole, as well as on the role of an individual architect working in a foreign country.

Interviews: Anneke Abhelakh / Concept: Anneke Abhelakh & Konstanty Konopinski / Edit: Konstanty Konopinski

About Anneke Abhelakh
Anneke is an independent curator, writer and researcher, who previously worked at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), AMO, The Berlage and ETH Zurich and Dropcity in Milan and Zentrum Architektur Zürich. In 2025 she curated the Albanian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, with the theme Building Architecture Culture.

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The public program of the Albanian pavilion 2025, produced podcasts on central topics in the build environment. Next to a general introduction the makers discussed with guests: On Agency, with Andi Eftimi and Elidor Mehilli / Freedom, with Lea Ypi, Nebi Bardoshi and Elisabetta Terragni / Landscape, with Toni Girones, Zydi Teqja and Guust Selhorts / Materiality & Continuity with Adil Bokhari and Eled Fagu / and on Governance with Simon Battisti, Francesca Chiesa Bianchi and Dorina Pojani.

The podcast made in collaboration with Koozarch are to be found here