One thing I was not expecting from Tirana, are its brightly painted buildings with lavish brush strokes of colour. But this is exactly what I found when I began exploring the city in earnest. When your mayor is an artist, Tirana’s colour explodes.
Brief History
After the ending of a severe and lengthy communist era, the Iron Curtain fell in 1991. The city of Tirana emerged, bland and full of cement boxes. A new mayor was elected in 2000, and with very little money to spend, he decided to transform his city.
Having been an artist for more years that he had spent in government, and an internationally acclaimed artist at that, he had a vision. Wanting to bring colour and creativity to his people, he began to have the city painted, one building at a time.
The Earliest Paintings
From the start, Edi Rama designed a few simple drawings, mostly of trees. He hired local and foreign artists to begin painting these images onto the utilitarian apartment buildings all around the city.
Besides the trees, he also painted polka dots, stripes, large blocks of colour and rainbows. As I walk around the various neighbourhoods, I can still see these early images around me. Some are faint from the sun, chipping and falling apart, but his vision is visible none the less.
Many locals were against this at first, mostly because they weren’t able to dictate the colours being used on their buildings. Some ended up with solid colours, others with splashes of colour, squiggly lines and simplistic childlike drawings.
In 2004, Edi Rama had transformed so much of the city, he won the award for Best Mayor in the World!
Modern Architecture
Now I have arrived 24 years after this began. Along with the early buildings that are looking a little dishevelled now, the new structures are making a name for themselves. Having travelled so much, I see new architecture in every city I visit. Never have I seen so much colourful modern architecture though. Have a look at these buildings. Bright greens and blues, every shade of red, almost neon yellow stripes of metal on a school.
There is currently so much new construction in this city, if I visit again in five years, I think it would appear quite transformed.
Street Art
I’m going to create a post for the street art alone, there is a plethora of it here so it definitely needs its own post. I’ll give you a taste here though.
Clearly these five story apartment buildings have the perfect ends, solid concrete flat surfaces. What could be a better canvas for an artist on a grand scale? The street art in Tirana is outstanding and a complete surprise for me. Readers will already know I have a passion for this form of art, I have found a treasure chest here.
Graffiti
There really isn’t a whole lot around the city. It surprised me at first but then I realized Tirana has only really had freedom of expression for 30 years. Graffiti is not something these people grew up with and are used to.
I have found some, to be sure and it is very interesting and unique. There is virtually no tagging and very little of the typical large bubble letters we all associate with graffiti. There are however some unique figural pieces that I am drawn to.
Fun Fact. Being such a ‘new’ city, graffiti is technically not illegal here, the penal code simply hasn’t developed enough to include it yet.
I’m surrounded by colour! Everywhere I look I see creativity, bright vivid hues and rainbows of artistry. Sure, some of it is childlike, but it has completely transformed this once drab concrete city into an oasis of innocence and happiness that it was sorely missing before.
