Shifting Roots

Stories of migration, memory, and presence across generations

Klea Sinani

Shifting Roots is a participatory research project that explores the layered experiences of Albanian-American immigrants through memory, family archives, and storytelling. Rooted in personal and collective narratives, the project reflects on what it means to live in-between places, generations, and identities.

The work unfolds through collaborative photo collages, silhouette cutouts, and a home video series co-edited with family members. These materials will eventually come together in a recreated living room experience—an intimate setting inspired by Albanian traditions of hospitality, where guests will be invited to sit, share, and reflect. This part of the project is currently in development and will serve as a space for deeper engagement with the visual and audio materials, as well as a site for communal dialogue around themes of migration, memory, and belonging.

The project questions how memory lives in physical and emotional spaces, how migration reshapes familial dynamics, and how art can serve as a site of healing, reflection, and reimagining. At its core, Shifting Roots is both a personal archive and a communal offering—one that honors the complexities of displacement while creating space for connection and resonance across cultures.