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By:
Enis Bytyqi
- March 24 2024 00: 31
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He had intended to study archaeology, he did not have the opportunity, but archeology became an inspiration in Valbona Zherka's art. The sculpture remained tentative, but quickly established its own identity, to become unique in art, especially as a pioneer in the textile technique. But there is resistance in expression. There she tells the stories of women who were not lucky enough to live in freedom. Her art of resistance is also expressed in a case when, while waiting for the Serbian police to take her out of the apartment, they intervened in her painting
The activity of the artist Valbona Zherka has been established over the years as an unfolding of the identity elements of the Albanian culture, focusing on the Albanian woman and the circumstances that influenced her position historically. The artist who has chosen to build her artistic opus on the medium of textiles and painting, revealed her beginnings in the journey with art in a close meeting with the public at the National Gallery of Kosovo, as a rare opportunity to see her in this format, since, as he himself says, he prefers to say what he has to say through art. He is afraid of speech.
Zherka, who is among the first names of women who engaged in art professionally in Kosovo, first found inspiration in creating artistic works in archeology as a field that always intrigued her, but the desire to study it did not come to her. reality. Fate had something else in store for him.
"As a young woman, I was very interested in archeology and I wanted to study in Zagreb, but those were difficult times and I couldn't. Then there was talk that the Faculty of Arts would be opened in Kosovo, and at first I decided on sculpture, since applied art has not been a branch at all. I have always liked the touch of the material, but over time even the professors told me that you are not strong enough to continue with sculpture as you need strength, and I continued with painting. It was a great privilege for us as students at that time, since we had a wonderful professor", said Zherka at the beginning of the conversation moderated by the coordinator of the National Gallery of Kosovo, Vlora Hajdini, on Thursday's indictment. He shared the primary motives of Zherka's involvement in the last GKK exhibition, "The event of a thread. Global narratives in textiles" opened at the beginning of the month, with works by 16 local and foreign artists, curated by the Germans Susanne Weiß and Inka Gressel. Zherka's work in this exhibition brings to mind traditional workshops that were placed as wall decorations. "The journey" is the tapestry inspired by the past, but also the imagination and utopian speculation about the future. But her unique art has been explored since the end of last month in her personal exhibition, "Journeys" at the Gallery of the Ministry of Culture.
"As a gallery, we also deal with the gallery's collection and we see what is missing from the collection, we have seen that there is a great lack of artists, whose works have apparently not been bought for various reasons. But it has historically cost us, because the woman has not been mentioned as an artist, or very little, because history is written based on the collection of works we have", said Hajdini.
Zherka, who completed her studies in painting at the University of Pristina in 1977 in the class of the painter Muslim Mulliqi, continued her postgraduate studies for magistracy in Belgrade, in the class of Milosh Bajic, which she completed in the 1980s. It was precisely the academic education that determined her artistic language and the choice of tapestry as an artistic medium, despite the fact that she remained faithful to painting.
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Her academic preparation paved the way for her name to be known in Kosovo in the 80s, being a participant in many exhibitions and artistic formations known at the time, such as the women's group "Creative Women" in 1982, "Autumn Salons ”, in the permanent exhibition of the gallery of the Albanian League of Prizren in 1978 and in collective exhibitions in the National Gallery of Kosovo, the catalogs of which are displayed on a table as reminders of its activity.
The themes that Zherka has treated with textiles and colors in painting and tapestry seem to have always been about the interpretation of the history of the Albanian people over the centuries, but increased attention is given to women and the difficulties in improving their position in society.
"As a child with my mother and her friends I often watched them working in the garden as they told the things they went through, so it has remained somewhere in my consciousness and I have used it in my art over and over again. I was lucky enough to have the maximum freedom from my family and surroundings, but through my works I have tried to tell the stories of other women who have faced various difficulties during their lives", said Zherka.
Despite being mostly known for tapestries, painting is an integral part of her identity as an artist. And he considers it as an easier medium next to upholstery that requires more effort and commitment.
"In painting, I mainly work with figures and put something on the head, there too I deal with resistance, women... the colors are similar to tapestries, but both have their own distinguishing features, especially in the work process", added Zherka .
She illustrated art as an inseparable part of her life with a moment when she shared a personal story from the last war in Kosovo and as an activity that helped her express herself at that time.
"During the war, I had a painting hanging in the house, there were some women with their faces covered, but while waiting for them to take us out of the house, I said to leave something of myself and I intervened in that painting right then and there, I put some crying children down and I discovered the images of women", Zherka recalled in 1999, referring to the painting, which was projected on the wall while she was talking about it.
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He also disclosed other details. She started her career after her studies with a very special commitment in the 80s.
"At the Rehabilitation Center in Shtime, along with speech therapists and psychologists, I have been going for months to teach children different art techniques as a kind of therapy through art. But, unfortunately, it was not successful due to the serious condition of the patients", she announced.
She considers art as therapy in itself, the process of weaving and painting turn out to be methods with which she processes her everyday life and the Kosovar reality.
"I work on the tapestry without making sketches, I prepare the material myself through a difficult and long process, but during the work it develops, it changes a lot, depending on the mood", said Zherka. But the fund of her works is not complete. Unfortunately, many of Zherka's works are now lost due to various circumstances and this is a great concern both for the artist and for the country's artistic heritage.
"When I applied to the Faculty of Arts to be employed as an assistant, I submitted many paintings, drawings and tapestries, the same in many exhibitions, but I don't know what happened to them, they were lost, I haven't seen them more", said the artist Zherka.
The return of the artist to the art scene in the country through the personal exhibition "Journeys" curated by Vesa Sahatçiu, last month and the collective "Event of a thread" in the National Gallery of Kosovo, seems to have inspired her to return again with the work of tapestries, which I intend to bring to life with a new cycle, which, like Zherka's previous works, which write the history of art in Kosovo, will continue to be a point of reference and inspiration for the textile technique.
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