Shkodër (Albania) (AFP)

In a workshop in northern Albania, artists paint and decorate by hand tens of thousands of Venetian masks that festival-goers like to wear during the carnival season around the world.

Each year, the Angoni workshop exports between 20,000 and 30,000 pieces, all unique, from the simplest to the most extravagant.

Edmond Angoni, 64, opened "Venice Art Mask" in Shkodër in 1997, after working for a while in Italy. Today, it employs around fifty people.

About "70% of the production is intended for the market of Venice", where the carnival has just been shortened because of coronavirus, the rest being sold in Australia, in Great Britain, in France, in the United States, explains- there.

The company also has seven stores in Venice which serve as a "showcase" for filmmakers and other theater assistants who come to order.

Masks are very popular during carnival but the company works all year round and some pieces are used by the seventh art. Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise wore, for example, Angoni masks in the film "Eyes Wide Shut" by Stanley Kubrick released in 1999.

"Everything is entirely handmade," said Emanuela Pergjergji, 36, one of the painters in the workshop.

The production of a clay mold into which plaster is poured, is followed by a dozen precise steps.

The masks have a cost - from 20 euros for a wolf up to 1,500 euros for the most luxurious - but that is the price of quality, according to Mr. Angoni. "We put on the artistic side, we treat them with passion and love like works of art".

Nora Gjonaj has worked in the workshop for 20 years. Her favorite masks: "animals of all kinds, which after being painted and decorated are very beautiful, very successful," she says.

The workshop also includes an exhibition hall where visitors can admire luxury models decorated with gold or silver leaf, decorated with feathers, Swarovski crystals, pearls.

The exhibition constitutes an additional attraction for foreign tourists who come to visit Shkodër, the "Venice of Albania" famous for its lake and its citadel.

Ivana Dedovic came from neighboring Montenegro to buy two masks for herself and her friend, which they will wear to the ball in their country. "Difficult to choose, they are all beautiful," she says delighted.

© 2020 AFP