Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at presentation of project to revitalise the pyramid:

 

It could have been I think around 15 years ago when I asked Vin about the pyramid. Back then I was serving as Mayor of Tirana and I was really tormented by the fact that the Pyramid, an iconic building from the country’s specific historical era, as well as a life experience for each and every one of us remained there as a frustrating expression of the inability to escape what it represented in the past time and give it a new life.

It took 15 years for Vin to answer that question, succeeding indeed in winning a challenge that you cannot always win. That was the challenge of transforming an architectonic icon built for a completely different purpose into an added value to a new era and indeed the first slide show he presented featured all images of the asymmetry between the past and the future, with the same pyramid standing at the very centre and I’m most pleased that we finally managed to deal with a dilemma that has been tormenting us for 30 years now.

You know quite well that there has been a moment in time when a previous government decided to demolish the pyramid-like structure. A public debate ensued back then and a critical group of surprisingly young activists, who had little to do with the past, but who signed a petition opposition the pyramid’s demolition. However, preserving the building didn’t finally resolve the issue of its function and I believe that the challenge won by Vin in this case is spectacular just for the fact that this symbol of one-man power and dictatorship provides the strength of the symbol of the power of every man in a new era. From a structure built to forcefully bring all the people to worship the dictatorship and the dictator into a building that brings people together to celebrate freedom and life.

At a first glance, it actually looks like an architectonic solution, but at the same time, like never before, it is a meaningful expression of the relation between form and content, as the pyramid’s interior will feature a program that ultimately tackles the dilemma about what this building will serve in the future, a program that thanks to the close cooperation with the Albanian-American Development Foundation and thanks to the collaboration with Vin we will provide young people with opportunities to gain direct and structured access to the latest technology as the pyramid will be transformed into a digital technology hub. Meanwhile, the entire facade of the building will become accessible and scalable and it will integrate into the urban fabric.

It is an ambitious project and, as it is rarely the case with Vin Mas, it is also a not very expensive designs. And I glad also about another fact that despite being is probably one of Vin’s less expensive designs yet it will be included on his catalogues as one of the most beautiful accurate and interesting designs as it combines an architecture and painful history of the past with the whole capacity to freely dream about the future.

In terms of the architectural solutions is absolutely a solution that, although Vin joked about – but we say that there is a grain of truth in every joke – but in this case I believe it is totally true that such solution makes Tirana and the landmark building of pyramid more attractive than the New York’s staircase building. On the other hand, I believe that my dear friend and one of the best Albanians I have ever met Michael Granoff actually tells the truth, although it sounds an exaggeration, when he says that this building, not just because of the architecture, but also its program, could become a landmark and a reference point not only in the Balkans, but also in a wider region. It may well become a reference point showing how a small society and a tiny country like Albania, or a country with limited material and financial opportunities compared to powerful and developed countries, it embraces the digital age and how it develops an example with global impact in terms of attracting young boys and girls to the new digital world based on the renowned and successful Tumo centre in Armenia and Paris.

It turns out Albania is the third country embracing such a model and Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj certainly cannot be missing in this configuration and in the world of what we call “the wishful thinking.” His ambition is to complete and make this building available to this year’s digital summit of the countries within the 16+1 format, which would also be a fantastic moment. But I would let Mayor Veliaj to work and deliver on this promise.

The whole team agrees on this issue and Michael too fully agrees with me that women are better than men; Vin knows little about Albania in this respect, but he has of course asked me whether women are better than men in this country. Of course I have told him this is unquestionably true. So, thanking everyone for the work you have done so far, because we are being given the opportunity to finally tackle a dilemma that has been tormenting us for years, as the pyramid was a kind an open grave right at the heart of Tirana, a building with a heavy history and heritage burden, yet with incredible potential to reborn thanks to this team and thanks to Vin’s power of imagination and  his masterful hand, which I believe I have described better than anyone else who have written about it, including leading architecture critics, urban development planner, journalists and experts.

We can now do nothing but wait for this project to complete after, according to Mayor Erion, it kicks off in June and is set to complete in next 12 months. This is the deadline provided by the Mayor.

Thank you all! I am pleased that we mark another important moment of celebrating art, creativity and people’s power to do great things when they come together. Concluding, I would like to recall an expression that is attributed to Walt Disney, but I don’t know whether it is an original saying or not, yet it is one of the expressions I frequently repeat at the cabinet meetings: It takes a project to make difference between a dream and the reality.

We are here with the right project to make the dream come true.

 

Thank you very much!