TRAMONTANA FORUM III
The Tramontana Network meets in Albania
From October 19th to 21st, 2026, Binaural Nodar, lead partner of the European project Tramontana IV, joins its partners in Shkodër and Lëpushë (Kelmend, Albanian Alps) for the 3rd International Forum of the Tramontana Network, hosted by GO2Albania.
The Tramontana Network is an international network for creation and research dedicated to the intangible cultural heritage of Europe’s rural and mountain communities. It was born in 2012 under the European Union’s Culture Program and has since had three further co-financing cycles from the Creative Europe program, a unique case in Europe. It currently has 11 members from 7 countries: Binaural Nodar (Portugal), Audiolab (Spain), Ràdio País, Numériculture Gascogne and Eth Ostau Comengés (France), La Leggera APS, LEM-Italia and Bambun APS (Italy), Akademia Profil (Poland), Orma Sodalitas Anthropologica (Romania) and GO2Albania (Albania), joined by numerous associated partners in all these countries.
With a multidisciplinary approach that brings together sociolinguistics, anthropology, ethnomusicology and the sound and visual arts, the network documents, researches, preserves and creatively disseminates the intangible cultural heritage of European mountain communities. This work was recognized as a Creative Europe Success Story (2018) and with the Grand Prix of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra (2020), in the Research category.
The Forum will be an opportunity to reflect on the work carried out and to exchange experiences between different areas of research, in a territory where the mountain landscape, collective memory and living traditions remain closely linked. Over three days there will be working sessions between the partners and discussions on research, digital archives, artistic production, educational initiatives and audience engagement, alongside activities dedicated to the cultural heritage of northern Albania. The meeting ends with a field visit to Lëpushë, in the Albanian Alps National Park, to learn about the landscape, the summer pastures and the local cultural heritage.
Open to the public, the photography exhibition “Kelmendi qysh se u fotografue s’pari” (“Kelmendi, since it was first photographed”), presented by GO2Albania in collaboration with the County of Shkodër, brings together historical photographs of Kelmend since 1897, from archives across Europe. The presentation takes place on October 20th, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at the Prefecture building (Rruga 28 Nëntori, Shkodër), with contributions from Holta Duda, Prefect of the County of Shkodër and president of the Albanian Alps National Park Committee, Eltjana Shkreli, architect and PhD candidate, from GO2Albania, and Luís Gomes da Costa, PhD candidate and president of Binaural Nodar, representing the Tramontana IV project.
Binaural Nodar is a cultural organization supported by the Portuguese Republic – Culture, Youth, and Sports | Directorate-General for the Arts.