Agim Qirjaqi, an honored artist , passed away in Tirana. He was born in Tirana, in 1951. He graduated as an actor at the High Institute of Arts (1973) and started working at the People’s Theatre. He completed the post-graduate course for director at the Higher Institute of Arts (1976); in the years 1989-1991 he attended specialization courses for directing in Milan and Rome. He worked as an actor and director at the National Theatre. From 1973, teacher of directing at the Academy of Arts, president of the Albanian Actors’ Association (1992–1996), director of the National Theater (2002–2003). He has performed a series of roles in the theater, such as: Sir Andrew Aguecheek in “12th Night” (Shakespeare), Vladimir in “Waiting for Godot” (S. Beckett), Haralambakis in “Garden of Swallows” (Babis Cikliropulos); as well as in cinematography: the school principal in “Lulekuqe mbi Mur” (“Poppies on the Wall“), the colonel in “Kolonel Bunker” (“Colonel Bunker“), Muçoja in “Tela per Violin” (“Violin Strings”). In his acting interpretation, a harsh realistic style stands out, with combinations of a psychological nature, where all the inflections, tones and poetic nuances coexist, as well as the grotesque and sarcastic ones. As a director, Agim Qirjaqi has aimed at works with political conflicts and social contradictions from Albanian drama such as: “”Pomegranate flowers“, “Zonja nga Qyteti” (“The lady from the city“) and from world classical dramaturgy “Këngëtarja tullace” (“The bald singer”), “Fando e Lis“, “Rikardit III” (“Ricard III“), “Enemy of the people“. His paintings are more like graphics; you see a few lines, mostly black and white, but very nervous, where you feel the pressure and confusion of the human soul in crisis. (In the photo: Agim Qirjaqi)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2185.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agim_Qirjaqi
Graphic processing: AHCF
