Abstract of the accomplished photographic work
ONCE PER DAY BEFORE BED
This ongoing series explores memory, intimacy, and emotional detachment through photography, text, and silk-screen prints. Originating from a recurring medical prescription—both literal and metaphorical—it visualizes past relationships as fragmented archives.
Using an iPhone as a diary and witnessing device, the work captures fleeting moments of loss and recollection, transforming them into tangible artifacts. Each image, scanned and reworked, questions the materiality of memory in the digital age.
Beyond personal history, Once Per Day Before Bed reflects the socio-political landscape of the Balkans, where generational trauma and shifting cultural values shape relationships. It acts as an excavation of intimacy, nostalgia, and transformation—where love is both an individual experience and a collective imprint.
Description of the project you intend to pursue through the Prize
LIFE AT THE DICTATOR’S VILLA
For the first time in 35 years, life has returned to Vila 31, once home to Albania’s communist dictator. As an artist-in-residence, I have been researching its underground escape tunnels—untouched since the regime’s fall in 1990. These spaces, built out of paranoia and never used, symbolize the dictator’s obsessive fear of invasion, which drained the country’s resources, leaving the population in poverty and isolation. This project holds deep personal significance, as my family has direct ties to the former prime minister executed by the dictator before his own death. Alongside six other artists, I am among the first to live in this space, now haunted by its history. Recently declassified state archives have allowed me to further investigate these tunnels, revealing long-buried secrets. As war and political instability unfold globally, this project feels even more relevant—capturing a site where history lingers, waiting to be confronted.