Valbona Speaks Up

About This Project

In 2016 I joined a group of influential musicians, to give creative voice to the environmental campaign against Hydro Power Development in Albanian wild rivers. I created visual communication and artworks under the motto “Don’t touch Valbona!”. The visual imagery was helpful in attracting audiences in a protest-concert in the valley of Valbona. The campaign was the first one to successfully attract the attention of the Albanian government. The next day, the prime minister visited the village where the concert happened.

In 2018 we continued our efforts. This time, against media censorship on the cause of environmental damage in Valbona. Together with the NGO Toka (toka-albania.org) we created a guerilla marketing campaign in the CT-lights of central Tirana, under the motto “Valbona Speaks Up!”. We were joined by Collective 68 (collective68.tech), who built an open source website of Q&A about the cause.

Later in 2018, I produced an animated music video in collaboration with the musicians, on the theme of environmental catastrophe in the rivers of Albania. Gaining social media traction, the music video was not ignored by mainstream television, despite conflict of interest.

In 2019, I was invited by Creative Mornings Tirana to speak about the campaigns.

Read more in this blog by Salzburg Global Seminar.