OSCE Presence in Albania opens exhibition in Tirana featuring artworks by local fine arts students on topic of corruption

An exhibition with students’ artworks on the topic of corruption opened at Jordan Misja Fine Arts School in Tirana on 10 June 2019. The exhibition showcased 30 of the best works out of 70 that the school’s students created as part of a competition organized by the OSCE Presence in Albania. Through this exhibition, the Presence aims to raise awareness of the topic of corruption by fostering discussion and reflection among the students and the public.

The Presence recognizes art as a powerful tool for raising awareness, reflecting and reacting to different issues. Over the past two years, it has organized similar art contests with the Academy of Arts on the topics of violent extremism, dealing with the past and environmental crime. 

“Corruption is something that you are confronted with already at a young age, so we felt we should do the art contest this time with even younger young artists,” said Head of Presence Ambassador Bernd Borchardt as he opened the exhibition. “Corruption is one of the central focus points of our work at the OSCE Presence. We see with regret that Albania, over the past two years, degraded in this field. The Transparency International Index saw a drop for Albania since 2016. We know that this year more efforts have been made by the police, by inspections, by the prosecution to bring people to book, but we feel that this is an issue that needs a multifaceted approach. And one of these facets is dealing with corruption through art.”

A professional jury awarded the first prize to Erlind Fusha, the second prize to Denajda Hajdari, and runner-up prizes to Adelajda Roçi and Eljon Alushi.

The exhibition can be viewed by members of the public at the Jordan Misja Fine Arts School in Tirana until 17 June 2019.