During the course of this blog, I have come across many interesting and talented people. One such individual is Leand Kalaja- a filmmaker and editor based in Tirana. We will be collaborating on a few projects in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here is a bit about him and a couple of examples of his work.
He calls himself a visual artist and he creates moody and atmospheric works of arts in both moving image and photographic format. His videos are characterised by intense soundtracks and you can also spot his work from the use of interesting focus and depth of field. As well as making videos and taking photographs, he also creates installation art pieces and is a painter.
Born in Tirana 1992, he comes from a family of musicians and artists, so there was little doubt in which direction Leand’s life would go. In 2006, he chose to go to art school- Jordan Misja in Triana where he graduated four years later in painting and graphic art. Shortly after his graduation, he held the first exhibition of his work at the National History Museum, showcasing in public for the first time, a collection of paintings, drawings and graphic pieces.
Then in 2011, he started studying visual arts and multimedia at the University of Arts, also in Tirana. He graduated with a Bachelor in 2014, and then as a Master of Fine Arts in 2016.
Over the span of his career, he has taken part in various multimedia exhibitions in FAB Gallery and the University of Tirana and he is known in the art community for his conceptual ideas as well as his way of inspiring interest in his audience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-17NvC2mCA
As well as collaborating in a workshop with Norweigan students from the Oslo Photo Art School, he also became a board member of a group of young artists which were known as “Retro”. This group put on exhibitions of their work in cities around Albania such as Berat, Pogradec, and Vlora and he also exhibited one of his short films “Instinct” in Delphi, Greece as a part of Retro.
When he isn’t busy creating breathtaking pieces of visual art, Leand is a big cat lover (good man!) and has a passion for music, philosophy, chess and baseball. He also plays the piano and the guitar.
Keep your eyes out for our upcoming collaboration!
To find out more about Leand, you can check out his Facebook, his Flickr, and his Instagram here.
Follow The Balkanista!
