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Bazaar - The Old & The New
Blerta Breznica
Albania
The film aims to portrait The New Bazaar: a modern public space; a lively scene with many happenings; inclusive for the people; a space that makes no seggregation between those who visit. But as you look at it, the design itself has no link with the Old Bazaar: the booming point of the whole city of Tirana, that has existed for over 300 years, and was demolished in 1959. As you walk around, the glass structure reflects the old mosque, an element that recalls the fact that before the new buildings composed this space, less than a hundred years ago, other buildings, another bazaar lived there, and they shaped the collective memory of the habitants. But there is no other sign. No translation of the history into the design itself. The film tends to implicate the fact that the new bazaar as a public space has proven to be successful in terms of inclusivity for the people. But it is just as important for the design to represent the history of the old bazaar, which people cared about and remember with nostalgia, but risks to be just a vague memory, and for which new generations 100 years from now will have no idea about.