Abstract of the accomplished photographic work
SURROUNDED (2019)
In her series surrounded, Albano focuses on the Chinese metropolis of Chongqing. In this rapidly growing city,
home to over 30 million inhabitants and with hardly a building older than 40 years, an extreme idea of progress
meets a special phenomenon of nature – a dense fog that often envelops the city tightly. It is this interaction that
Albano studies in surrounded.
– Anne-Marie Beckmann, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation
STATUS REPORT (2022/23)
Albano examines how the Belt and Road Initiative (“New Silk Road”) is visible in countries that have committed
their attendance to the world changing project. In 2022, she went on a photographic research trip to 15 countries.
– Cornelia Siebert, Cultural Scientist
I AIN’T FROM NO EAST COAST (2024)
Using her parents’ Stasi files, personal, institutional archives, and new photographs, Albano explores her own
fragmented and secret-laden Afropean history.
– Dr. Franziska Kunze, Pinakothek, Munich
Description of the project you intend to pursue through the Prize
AFROPA
Hybrid identities have run parallel to humanity’s path for centuries, and Africa and Europe, in particular, share a long, complex history that predates colonial structures. Nevertheless, cultural encounters continue to be challenged today.
The Afropean identity is fluid, yet there is a recurring urge to frame it in some way. Building on different perspectives, such as BuJassO’s eponymous album(2013) or J. Pitts’ journal(2020), »Afropa« aims to merge fragments and provide visual evidence across both – continents and disciplines.
My idea is to explore +8 architectural and cultural hybrid sites, such as the Opera Village (BF) and Matongé (BE). Additionally, archive material from documentation centers, museums of migration like DOMiD and texts by Afropean authors will be compiled in a book.
Thus, it gathers interdisciplinary perspectives on a cross-continental vision,
one that may forever remain a fragmented home for so many: Afropa.