Part Two
Memorie.al / Since I first saw the monumental sculpture of Aqif Pasha Elbasani, I have been fascinated by that brilliant classical realization, where every detail of it is expressed with a pure realism and warm feelings, as all the virtues of this great thinker and humanist emerge: his simplicity, spiritual intimacy, and the delicacy of the intellectual humanist, his love for the common people, the desire to sacrifice and give everything for the good of the nation (his left hand on his heart and his index finger pointed towards the flag on his right side) and his great dream, that Albania would become a free, independent, and advanced country like all those modern states of civilized Europe. At the time this monument was erected, on November 25, 1995, its author, quite young, probably did not realize that this work of his would remain the emblem of the city of Elbasan. Almost twenty years have passed since that day, while the artist Bujar Kapllani has also created other works, but at the same time, he has also worked as a professor of Visual Arts at “Aleksandër Xhuvani” University.
Continued from the previous issue
Where do you feel closer, to painting or to sculpture?
Just like nature, beautiful thoughts, healthy human stories, and the inner clarity of understanding human values, all push you towards symbols and metaphors painted as life compositions. Similarly, sculpture in my works conveys a metaphysical, logical, and sensory intertwining, so I think you cannot be predetermined to be a painter or a sculptor. Painting came first, sculpture as a push, but both together are part of each other, nothing is lost, without realizing it they give and take, they have feeling in common. I managed to understand this with the drawings I studied, when I was looking for the form in sculptural volumes intertwined in three elements: light, shadow, accent (the boundary of light and shadow), but on the other hand, while building these, the hand flew in structures of picturesque and transparent lines, something that is gained by practicing works in watercolor, oil, and pastel.
What are the regrets that trouble you?
The desire to make monuments arises not only when the government has the desire and need to lean on history, but also for the common urban tastes and feelings, to elevate them to the proper levels that the modern urbanization of the country requires, where the streets, squares, parks at every moment touch the human feeling for all ages and human categories. It would be very beautiful that besides the monument of the flag in squares and streets, besides the historical fixations, we also had themes of daily life, that bring people closer to nature and freedom, to think with their individual values nurtured in the bosom of nature and healthy society. A historical sculpture unaccompanied by these sculptural values would offer visions of provincialism.
A child’s figure playing somewhere in the park, figures of animals floating on fountains, somewhere a mythological tree that connects with the city in the allegory of the animal and man, the eternal struggle of human values to be elevated, somewhere in a university park figures of students studying and meditating, somewhere a philosopher giving a human message, somewhere a simple man who has raised the voice of urban conscience against injustices, but also abstract forms with emblems or natural elements that push you towards the cultivation of the taste of beauty.
Life does not only have history, where the models of rulers are militated, but above all it has an inexhaustible source of natural feelings, which we call human history. So we still have not understood, in the way that the rulers conceive of sculpture, that even the heroes we have erected on pedestals had the mission of liberating human feelings. We place wreaths at their feet, even add the names of admirers with the origin of the wealthy, but we forget to put the artists to work to carve the beautiful human feelings and values, as the yeast of a healthy and humane society in the works of the future.
Therefore, my regret remains that at least one work in two years we could have realized, along with it my mission as an artist to change the perception of life, even for those people who are not artists, but are real consumers of artistic values. I believe that this would improve the quality of thinking and living in a modern urban community. I hope that in the future the rulers do not see and convert the mission of true artists, as a way of gaining wealth and power, for themselves. Above art nothing has value, where there is art there is pleasure to live in that city, there is a belief that things will be fixed again, there is urban partnership to choose the best of what is called human.
Besides your art in painting and sculpture, you are also a visual art lecturer. How do you conceive of an artist’s teaching in the sphere of their own art?
Art itself is “teaching,” but disguised in human messages, where the sensory fullness and the logic of creative activity are intertwined. Art begins as a metaphysics of nature by nourishing the feelings and the “scientific” reasoning, just as teaching in art is equated with reading the path that the artist, as a creative person, travels in his internal process, following the steps of professional ability growth, turning it into living educational models for the teachers of the new generation. Teaching also enters into the history of the development of human values in different periods, nations, and countries, which are living models not only for future teachers but for any kind of profession; even for economists, not only for philosophers and historians.
The history of art is a living mirror from primitive man to today’s man, for the development of the nation, writing, tools, techniques, endless human stories, scientific discoveries, lifestyle, philosophical thought and aesthetic theories, the evolution of religions, monarchies, reforms, discoveries of the secrets of ordinary nature in the living micro-world as well as in the great phenomena of nature. In art you find everything, so it is the most objective method in teaching to learn the history of human feelings, which have led man towards great scientific discoveries and endless changes of relationships towards the positive policies of the future. Art is education. Students love art, because art educates them better than recitations without imagination.
How was the monument of Edmond Hoxha in Kosovo evaluated?
This monument always brings me to two states, of joy and of the respect that was given to me when I was entrusted with the realization of this monument and the other, is the regret that I could not keep it in modeling for a couple of months more, not that I had any gain, but I had a lot to do in the direction of professional plastics for that monument, but the customers were in a hurry, as they had objective reasons, because the brother of this hero, also passed away four months later. He was one of the Albanians persecuted by the Serbian government, he was among the first who raised his voice for the flag, shortening the beautiful days of his life in the prisons of Yugoslavia. Here also begins the education of Edi Hoxha, with the love for the nation and the Albanian flag. Their family was the foundation base of the Albanian nation, generation after generation, sacrificing everything for freedom. Edi was in the initial nucleus of the founding of the UÇK (KLA) and is among the first three heroes of the UÇK, killed in an ambush.
What impressed me about his youthful personality, was not only the conviction that the freedom of the homeland was precious, but also his sporty and majestic physique, and with a beauty as rare as in such ages. When I saw his photo I felt pain, admiration, respect and pride. The first thing that came to my mind, when I composed it, was to make him walking with the determination of the left step forward, calling the Kosovar youth to arms, with his left hand towards the sky for freedom and with the index finger of his right hand, towards the earth for the homeland.
This idea made me resist the desires of the clients, to dress him militarily and to arm him with a weapon, I was convinced that the spirit of Edi Hoxha, was higher than the power of the uniform and the weapon, so much so that the Serbs killed him while running through the forest, with a helicopter, as they could not catch him. For a month in a row I argued with the clients, (in the e-mails we exchanged), the value that the youthful spirit of the Kosovar youth had, in the sculptural figure of Edi Hoxha.
The communications circulated throughout the Albanian diaspora, including Albanian personalities in the west and in Kosovo, who “surrendered” in front of my arguments, as a creator and their fellow countryman. They gave me the right to continue according to my opinion. For an artist, this is an achievement, because the clients could have bypassed me, if they had not understood me. In the middle of the work process, the hero’s family and sisters came and they remained satisfied, not only with the resemblance of the sculpture to the hero, but also with the spirit it conveyed.
The work was going well and I had decided to make a more successful and beautiful work and with a lot of thought, working for seven months and every day, from morning to evening, always with the concern to have it ready on the day requested by the clients. I would have liked to have worked for twelve months. The special thing about the inauguration for me as the author, was the moment when the hero’s brother, Xhaviti, told me: “I also like that you made Edi as you thought, without a uniform and without a weapon”! There he also read his own youth that fought with his Kosovar spirit and Albanian heart.
The monument of Aleksandër Xhuvani, is your sculpture promoted on the one hundredth anniversary of the first National ‘Normal’ school, how did the idea for the realization of this work come to you?
In Albania, many ideas can be born as an artist, but it is not said that they become a reality. I am also convinced by the fact that in the years ’88-’89, I had an idea, to enrich the facade of the Pedagogical high school, which represented the heritage values of ‘Normale’, the first high school of education, opened in 1909, after the reforms of the Young Turk movement in Albania. I, as an artist, did not represent the tradition of Elbasan, but I had learned and read about the historical figures of this city. In 1989, on the 80th anniversary of the ‘Normale’ school, I wanted to make a triptych division on the facade of the Pedagogical school, a relief where: the first space, would be the founding of ‘Normale’ in 1909; the second, the activation of this Normale in the war (National Liberation War); the third, the developments of education within the current time.
In the first part of the triptych, I perceived the temporal movements of the fighters of the patriotic gangs, through a fighter riding and walking next to a horse at the entrance of the composition, opening a free path to a group of children, dressed in traditional clothes of the Albanian regions, with books and musical instruments in their hands and with torches of light that symbolized the power of knowledge that schooling offers, the power of love that education with art offers and the power of patriotism, that knowledge and art educated in the ‘Normale’ school offers.
This whole introduction is not for nothing in this narrative, as I have also modeled it in a project-idea of a monumental work, with the aim of highlighting the historical factor of the national personalities who laid the foundation stone in this majestic building for the nation. The history of ‘Normale’ does not belong only to the citizens of Elbasan, perhaps it represents more, based on the wide spectrum of personalities who formed and developed this ‘Normale’, starting with Luigj Gurakuqi, Aleksandër Xhuvani, and many other figures, from developed cities like Korça and Shkodra.
The ‘Normale’ school bears the name of Luigj Gurakuqi, as a representative of the national political movement, as a representative of the National Renaissance and as a coordinator of the activity of the patriotic national gangs for the independence of the Albanian lands. While Aleksandër Xhuvani, represented the personality of knowledge and intellectual youth, who laid the foundations of Albanian education. It is no coincidence that the consciousness of the citizens and those pashas who supported this movement, were the first to initiate the raising of the Flag of National Independence on November 25, 1912, with the hand of the patriot Aqif Pasha Elbasani, but also with the spirit of knowledge that the ‘Normale’ of Gurakuqi and Xhuvani opened. Therefore, even today I would like that on the plaque where the names of the citizens of Elbasan who supported the historical decision of raising the flag are written, to place before the name of Shefqet Vërlaci, as the richest bey of the city, the names of Luigj Gurakuqi and Aleksandër Xhuvani, as precious stones of national thought, who brought the light of patriotic knowledge, not only in the hearts of the common people and honorable citizens, but also in the minds of the beys and agas, that wealth could not separate them from Turkey.
This is the reason that in the first part of the triptych for the ‘Normale’ monument (which was not realized), I placed in the middle of the children Luigj Gurakuqi as a liberator and Xhuvani, as the first Albanian professor, Luigji, as a national hero, with the dimensions of Shkodran citizenship and of the Albanian lands, as well as Xhuvani as a representative of the modern local elite with modern European dimensions. As an inseparable whole of our national movement were those two; Freedom and the Light of the future.
Unlike the dramatic fate of Luigj Gurakuqi, the fate of Xhuvani took on other unprecedented dimensions in the thirties, under the shadow of the Albanian Monarchy. The ‘Normale’ school brought the first Albanian intellectuals, who gave modern dimensions to the National Liberation War, during the Second World War, but also to the development of Albanian education, culture, and economy.
The director of this ‘Normale’ in the thirties was Aleksandër Xhuvani. In this long narrative came the incentive for the first concept-idea about Aleksandër Xhuvani, which was not realized in the ‘Normale’ monument, as the art commissions near the Party Committee and the District Councils in the time of monism, were built by individuals, who not only did not have personal initiatives, will and self-confidence for such dimensions of monumental works, but also had the “chance” to restrain, hinder and stop those who had such initiatives.
So today those models worked for almost a year, are in my studio, covered by the dust of oblivion. The facades of the historical Pedagogical, today a high school, are empty spaces without the necessary historical messages, while the members of the commission, enjoy the successes of “market” art on the roads of the modern world in the West…! Perhaps, in the longing for their homeland, a shadow of reflection might touch them. Perhaps they could have done something in memory of the ‘Normale’ and the Pedagogical of Elbasan, which no longer exists as a high school, today. Perhaps they could have left a mark on those facades, where that first ‘Normale’ school of Albanian education was born and grew up (!?). If we talk about the realization of the monument of Aleksandër Xhuvani’ near the building of the university with the same name in Elbasan, I can say with consciousness’ that it could not have been my idea, as monuments are financed with considerable budgets.
This was like a new idea of the rectorate and the senate of the University of Elbasan, who, after giving a modern look to the University of Elbasan, were able to eternalize in a monument the figure of the founder of this university’ from the birth of ‘Normale’ in 1909, its growth in the thirties, to reach its modern and university life, after one hundred years in 2009. One hundred years are enough to determine the values of a national personality who dedicated himself with his heart and soul to this nation, who not only forgave energy and knowledge for the birth and formation of national education, not only forgave political will for the modernization of parliamentarism and national policies for education and science, but also conceived patriotism and heroism to make sacrifices for the nation, giving the homeland in the epochal National Liberation War, the precious life of one of its sons, Ptolemy, as if to carry higher the testament left by Luigj Gurakuqi in the opening of the Normale for national freedom with the motto of the renaissance with a rifle and a pen.
The initiative of the rectorate of the University of Elbasan, developed with an idea from me as a creator and artist, but also as a citizen of Elbasan, that we should see Xhuvani at the top of the stairs with the republican’s hat in his left hand and with his right hand in his pocket, as an original treasure of knowledge, ideas, dreams, and life desires, but also of the sacrifices he keeps for the freedom and development of the nation, which we see today as a symbol of professional, intellectual, scientific, and material individualism. All this accompanied by a slight tilt of the head to the side from the hand that he holds in his pocket, in self-respect as self-confidence and modesty for the students who pass by his side, who take the baton of the future.
What difficulties did you have in the realization of this work?
While we are talking about great sacrifices made by honorable people from the nation, for an artist the word sacrifice does not go, as the artist feels proud to model the image of such figures and at the same time he is given the chance to highlight his own professional abilities.
What are the evaluations for this monument?
First of all, I feel very valued, for the trust shown by the rectorate of the University of Elbasan, which selected the sculptural project-idea of Xhuvani, realized in the initial model with a height of 1 meter. Perhaps this trust is also related to the values presented in the previous monuments, realized by me, which offered a good artistic-professional opinion to my fellow citizens. This assured them that they would successfully realize their goal in this monument, but also the cost of the estimate offered by me, for this monumental work, was quite modest compared to the funds spent in other cases, for monuments of a smaller size, not to mention that monuments with poor artistic quality have also been realized. For this, I feel self-evaluated in complexity and as an academic part of this university.
While with the media I have been quite disappointed, as they do not write in their newspapers the name and surname of the sculptor, who modeled this monument, which was not just two words and that was it. Did their owners not allow them?! Meanwhile, the names of all the government officials who participated in the inauguration of the monument were mentioned, and even the names of the academic officials of the University of Elbasan, even though they watched during the creation of the monument, they did not come even once to the studio, to discuss its realization, nor were they “worried” about it. For this “journalistic objectivity” I thank them, because they testified that their newspapers and local televisions, even though “de jure” they have different names, “de facto,” they are led in thought and action by a “head of subjectivity.” At the same time, I was impressed that even the local politicians of both sides, who did not leave anything unsaid about each other, during the campaign, there in front of the monument they met and longed for a long time, like two old friends, who have something to say to each other.
They did not forget, during the inaugural ceremony of the monument, to meet with their “public friends,” but they did not see the artist there in front of their eyes, to give him a wish and a thank you, and why not, perhaps even some criticism. For them, only silence is enough! Here in this case, in front of this provincial silence, I have to thank also those who did not feel “important” on that day; my artist colleagues who supported me and my students. I send a special thank you to my friend and artist colleague Gëzim Hidri, who carved the stone base of this monument in a cylinder-ball shape, perfectly “turned” only by hand, within a very short time and with a very high artistic quality, something that is very beautifully connected with the image of the monument, in front of the glass facade of the University.
How have your colleagues received the realization of this work?
It is not ethical to mention names, for artists inside and outside Elbasan, but also foreigners have appreciated its artistic and professional quality, and with all this everything remains in the form of “urban stories,” as long as there is no critical line related to the development of Albanian sculpture. Everything has been left to chance, but one thing is certain; today it is the political power that determines the fate of the artist, and even his respect for the work he creates. Open the municipality’s guide and there, they remove your name from the monument of Aqif Pasha, they do not show the visitors and citizens who the author is, while for the monument of Aleksandër Xhuvani, they put the author’s name, but they do not put a photograph of the monument. Who is asking the monumental artists today, who they are in themselves and what thoughts and obligations they have for the development of art?
Everything is determined by the personal tastes of those who are “chosen,” although they are not artists, nor politicians to tell the truth. The institutionalization of thought is difficult, only opinions build the real perception of art. We, as artists, have an obligation to the quality of creativity, just as politicians have an obligation to respect the institutional principles of governance, related to the artistic quality of monumental works and at the same time to the reflection of healthy content, within their art. Let them delve into the responsibilities for the quality of monumental art, as tomorrow it will be a determinant of the quality of their governance, if they want to leave a good name as fellow citizens. Memorie.al
