SHIFT
Telescope Korça
As part of SHIFT Shaping Harmony Innovating Forms and Thought, a cooperation project, funded by the Creative Europe programma of the European Commission, between Cie Omar Rajeh & Maqamat (France), Albania Dance Meeting (Albania) and Fondazione Fabbrica Europa
Telescope Korça took place from 4 to 8 March 2026 in Korça (Albania) as a five-day creative laboratory dedicated to contemporary dance and performance practices. The activity provided an intensive environment for artistic research, experimentation, and exchange among emerging choreographers from Europe and the Mediterranean region.
The artists Momen Nabil (Egypt), Saphir Belkheir (France / Algeria), Sofia Mavragani (Greece) and Blanca Lo Verde (Italy), selected from across Europe and the Mediterranean, were accompanied by mentors and cultural professionals from Albania and neighboring countries, who provided guidance, feedback, and contextual insight throughout the laboratory.
The programme included daily sessions combining artist presentations, workshops, one-on-one feedback, mentoring, and site-specific explorations of Korça’s public and cultural spaces. Participants engaged in discussions on spatial practices, public space activism, and alternative performance formats, while also attending guided tours of museums and city landmarks to contextualize their research. Networking sessions and informal exchanges were built into the schedule to foster connections among participants, mentors, and local professionals. Activities were designed to encourage participants to reflect on their creative methodologies, exchange practices, and develop new approaches to performance-making.
This environment effectively encouraged a context-sensitive and site-responsive approach, as several locations in the city were collectively observed and discussed as potential sites for artistic intervention. This process enabled participants to critically reflect on how performance can engage with urban environments, local communities, and everyday life, expanding their artistic methodologies beyond conventional performance settings.
A key focus of the laboratory was the exploration of non-dedicated and unconventional spaces for performance, encouraging participants to rethink the relationship between choreography, audience, and environment. Through site-based experimentation and collaborative dialogue, the artists were invited to question established formats and reimagine their creative processes.
Overall, Telescope Korça contributed to strengthening regional artistic exchange and supporting the professional development of participating artists. The laboratory generated new artistic reflections and potential future collaborations, as participants tested ideas, received feedback, and expanded their perspectives on choreography and spatial practices, contributing to the further development of their individual artistic research.
SHIFT Shaping Harmony Innovating Forms and Thought is a project that aims to transform the way dance is experienced and presented. It seeks to explore new formats of artistic expression, community engagement, and audience interaction, involving artists, experts, and citizens from multiple EU and Mediterranean countries.
SHIFT aims to uncover the essential conditions for transitioning from the ‘visual’ to the ‘active’, illuminating the requirements for engaged creations, innovative relationships, and unconventional audience experience.
SHIFT is a project
