Good evening everyone!

Thank you for being here with us!

Thank you Ambassador for your way here and flexibility you have shown during our cooperation.

I would also like to thank you for the choice you have made, starting with Luciano for his dedication and organization of this activity and of course last but not least the British Council.

As we have mentioned, this is the third year organizing this activity or this competition that we have named “Colours of Albania” or “ngjyrat e Shqipërisë”, whose basic purpose is not just to include young people, people without any distinctive features, in a competition where each of them is able to take a photograph, definitely not like those professional photos we are used to see in Shkodra or in this important gallery that clearly shows our European identity, but photos mirroring the beauties of Albania.

They have the opportunity to further promote our country or even photos that demonstrate Albanian people’s best traditions. Just for curiosity I can tell you that last year and the year before we have had a very large number of people who were involved in this competition. Then we selected the best one hundred photos to eventually select the top ten photos and finally choose the best one. Interesting is the fact that throughout this whole process we have tried to conceal the borders that exist today between Albanians in the Balkans and the process itself has actually managed to wipe them out. I recall that in the first of two contests there were Albanians from Kosovo selected among the final ten who thanks to their talent wew then selected by the jury as the winning photos.

Hence, I really hope that also this year, we will preserve and consolidate the same tradition and Albanians, wherever they live within Albania or abroad, would have the opportunity to contribute to this competition.

But why did we move to Shkodra this time when in fact we launched the competition in Tirana twice? It has nothing to do with the political situation nor what will happen in Albania in the upcoming days, it is clearly related to our program, because as it was mentioned in the opening of this event Shkodra is the typical place where practically photography was born and where had already foreseen to launch this initiative after Tirana.

I believe that even the word “colour” that has the two main elements of visual art, which are photography and painting, cannot be conceived without the tradition and contribution of Shkodra in this regard. Therefore i hope that the third year will also be a successful year. We have the opportunity to include as many people as possible in this competition and gradually promote it in other cities of Albania.

Thanking you all for your participation, allow me to thank once again for the so far cooperation the Norwegian Embassy and the British Council.

Thank you!