At a time when 1990s Albania was struggling to rebuild its identity between poverty and hope, a foreign yet empathetic eye chose to stay and document reality with a camera in hand.
German photographer Jutta Benzenberg returns with an exhibition in Tirana, one that reflects not only the history of a country but also the personal drama of loss and resilience.
The photographs selected for the exhibition were salvaged from her home that burned down in 2006. Others come from negatives that survived untouched, while some have been reimagined as collages by the exhibition’s curator, Olsi Hoxha.
“When they asked me to scan the negatives, it was very difficult. As I worked, I could barely breathe. Now, thanks to this process, I am at peace with what happened. It was hard to look at the burned house, the images of my husband. The exhibition speaks of emotions and awareness; it is the story of Albania, of myself, of my family. My trauma is no longer as strong,”
— Jutta Benzenberg
The exhibition, titled “Don’t Look Back at the Burning House,” is open at the Heinrich Böll Stiftung cultural space on Skanderbeg Square. It offers the public a glimpse into Albania of that era, with people facing the ruins of communism.
“I learned that Jutta experienced something extraordinary as a photographer. The burning of her house with the entire archive… I can’t imagine what her work was like in those years. For me it is very important, because for years I have been working to bring everything back from the ’90s. It hasn’t been easy, because these losses were not only material but also emotional,”
— Goekhan Tuncer, Executive Director of HBS
At the opening of the exhibition, which will remain open until November 16, the EU Ambassador to Albania, Silvio Gonzato, was also present.
“Jutta’s photographs are a portrayal of Albania in the 1990s — years of transformation, hope, expectations and ambitions, but also of displacement, emigration, and loss. It is beautiful how you have presented them in such a human way. We are faced with a troubling past,”
— Silvio Gonzato, EU Ambassador to Albania
More than just an exhibition, “Don’t Look Back at the Burning House” is also the title of Jutta Benzenberg’s new photography book.
