Albanian artistic activist, Migen Qiraxhi, joined a Center for Artistic Activism training in Sarajevo in 2019. Since then he’s taken those lessons and shared them with groups in Albania to create remarkable actions against corruption. We’re happy to share a recent report from Migen.

We created and printed in 2d versions the figures (silhouettes) of the most important and respected historical figures of the Albanian history. Taking into consideration the respect that citizens have for them, we built a campaign in which citizens were asked to condemn the phenomenon of corruption. Their messages were an invitation to reflect their actions or passivity in the Albanian society. Through their signatures on the printed figures of the heroes, we managed to create interactivity but also to got from citizens their commitment in the fight against the phenomenon of corruption.

Together with the team trained for creative activism, we worked with:

  • The selection of figures – which were comprehensive and with a high contribution to the country
  • The definition of the design
    • red was labeled as the color of the Albanian national affiliation;
    • a minimalist style and silhouette was chosen as the most suitable to have space in order to give more weight to the message and not the visual details of the heroes;
    • the size of the figures was chosen the same as that of a real human to create a direct relationship between figures and citizens.
  • Messages for each figure – each figure asked citizens to promise to them that they would not commit corruption in a specific sector, which is related to the hero’s work by relating it with a problematic sector of corruption (evaluated according to national and international organizations).

Invitations prepared for each city

We had the opportunity to talk to citizens in all the cities and got a lot of compliments and appreciation from them on the idea of the action. We also managed to collect their signatures in the form of commitment in the fight against corruption, attracting the attention of the media and various personalities of our country and taking the activity “A Promise to Your Hero” in another level, by becoming a campaign at the national level to address the issue of corruption.

Tirana, Feb 22, 2021

The Municipality of Tirana did not allow us to use the town square, thus we were located in a tourist street in the center of the capital, which has a private administration, but which allowed us to communicate equally with the citizens and throughout the day the exhibition was visited by hundreds of citizens passing by, many of whom signed a promise to their favorite hero.

The event was covered by 4 national television stations and in two of them, live broadcasting was made possible for 15 minutes. Below you can find the news prepared by some of them:

The project staff conducted two livestream conversations on Facebook, which had a high level of views and positive reactions from citizens. The first livestream was realized in the form of an interview where Mr. Migen Qiraxhi, as leader of this action, presented the symbolism and messages that each hero carried. The conversation was reached by 3,000 people and had 9 shares.

The second livestream conversation on Facebook focused on the topic of corruption, during which a character very dear to the public, activist and professor Mr. Erion Kristo was invited, who made a presentation of the negative phenomena of corruption in the Albanian society. The conversation was reached by 1,000 people.

Shkodër, Feb 28, 2021.

The activity in Shkodra was of great interest to pedestrians. The exhibition was covered by 6 national televisions which broadcasted the information in the central news editions.

Below you can find the news prepared by some of them:

Voice of America

Vlorë, March 3, 2021

During the activity held in Vlora, the Ambassador of the Netherlands in Albania H.E Ms. Guusje Korthals Altes expressed her interest to visit the exhibition and give her message, who described this action as an effective way to talk to citizens on the phenomenon of corruption and the role of citizens in the fight against it. She shared this activity on the social media of the Dutch Embassy also.

Present in this event was also UNICEF representative Dr. Roberto De Bernardi , as well as the Mayor of Vlora, Mr. Dritan Leli , who chose to show his commitment and sign 2 figures: Ismail Qemali (father of the Albanian state) who is known for his statements that as an official he would not seek or accept corruption; and since we are close to the parliamentary elections he also signed the figure of Musine Kokalari (dissident) who requires her fellow citizens not to fall prey of vote buying or vote coercion. He also shared the photos on his social networks:

Korçë, March 5, 2021

In the city of Korca, the gallery of the heroes and the activity were positioned on one of the most important streets of the city, which gave us the opportunity to attract the attention of many pedestrians with whom we communicated and got their commitment on the fight against corruption in the country.

Kavajë, March 7, 2021

Taking into consideration the invitation of a group of young people from the city of Kavaja (Kavaja Book Club) we decided to organize our action in the city of Kavaja also, where we also attracted the attention of young people and other pedestrians.

Online campaign

Throughout these days of activities we have accompanied our actions with numerous posts on social medias, which has increased the interactivity between those who could not be present physically at the event to make a promise to their hero.

Also, to increase the impact, we have prepared 5 video – messages which will be distributed on social networks to spread out the message.

Below you can find the link of the materials on YouTube, which are not planned to be published in the following days: