“Kinema Agimi”, one of the oldest in Tirana, will now serve as an Art Center for the capital city of Albania.

The Creative Industry Agency of the Municipality of Tirana has revived the most popular cinema in Tirana, adapting it not only for the screening of films but also for other cultural events.

At the opening ceremony, Mayor Erion Veliaj also informed that work on the new theatre building will start next week.

“People don’t live on bread alone, otherwise the municipality would be the biggest baker; but people also live with art, culture, film, theater. I know that for many of these projects we have had many, many debates, but my job is not to make decisions that please everyone. My job is to make decisions that serve everyone. I know there are still some people who may be upset with me about the theatre, but next week we will be breaking ground on the new theatre.”

In September, the Pyramid of Tirana, which also offers spaces for culture and art, will be fully functional.

“For the Pyramid, we will use the entire summer months to complete it with the technological equipment needed, servers, computers, so we will have several similar halls there as well. If at the end of this mission, together with Elva [Margariti, Albanian Minister of Culture] and alongside our collaborators, we manage to leave this type of footprint, such as ‘Shtëpia Kadare’, ‘Reja’, ‘Toptanët’, ‘Libohovitët’, the Academy Hall which is expected to open soon, the Pyramid, the Theatre, the Gallery, the Old Puppet Theatre… I say we have given this city a dowry that will last for generations.”

After “Kinema Agimi”, “Kinema Maks Velo” is next in line to undergo restauration, to be transformed into a new art space in Tirana.

The iconic “Kinema Agimi” was the last cinema left from the ‘90s. Until 1961, it was called “the cinema of the Soviets”, because almost the entire surrounding neighborhood was inhabited by Soviet families that worked in Albania.