TIRANA, June 6 /ATA/-Maela Marini/ “Bread & Heart Festival” is the title of the festival that brings together over 150 renowned international architects from Europe, Asia, North America, and South America in Tirana.
Viewed as an innovative European event, this festival brings together architects working in Albania, along with their local partners and diverse guests, to share experiences, tackle the challenges of modern urban and social development, and contribute to the creation of policies and strategies that drive the major transformation of our country within the wider European and Balkan framework.
In his speech at the event, Prime Minister Edi Rama praised the festival for placing Albania on another prestigious map of Europe, setting the stage for the “Bread & Heart” Festival to become, within a few years, a globally renowned event centered on architecture but increasingly involving a broader range of disciplines in the conversation.
Rama stated, “We all know that Albania is not a country that attracts the world’s most visionary architects with money or glamour, but it draws them with something much harder to define, yet impossible to fake.”
He added, “It attracts them with a shared belief in the reality of a dream and the faith that it can be carried not only here but especially here. Something full of life, unique, something still incredibly free. Free from the comfort of stifling regulations.”
As the festival gathers in Tirana on an Eid day, the Prime Minister emphasized that, in its own way, this festival is a celebration of the spirit.
“It is an act of taking steps forward—not to dominate the land, but to listen to it. Not to impose ourselves, but to imagine together. Not to sacrifice one vision for another, but to set aside our egos so that something shared, something greater, can be born in their place,” Rama said.
And if this appears to be mere chance, Rama highlighted the significance of blending a fresh start with a holy day.
“I must say that I have traveled many paths in every sense, and whether good or bad, I do not believe in coincidences. I invite each of you to feel the connection between this day and this new adventure, to embrace this unique convergence not as a coincidence, but as a blessing,” said Prime Minister Rama.
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