Anyone who has visited “Rozafa Fish City” has certainly not escaped the photos taken of the works of art located there, but above all of the giant sculpture of our national hero Skanderbeg. To complete this panorama, Mr. Gjergj Luca, the owner of Fish City, initiated a competition for the placement of two other giant sculptures on both sides of Skanderbeg. These are two well-known Albanian figures, the one of wisdom like Lekë Dukagjini and the one of resistance like Adem Jashari.
Sculpture students were invited to participate in this competition and presented their sketches. At the award ceremony, Mr. Luca was accompanied by sculptor Arben Bajo and the director of the Center for Interfaith Cooperation, Mr. Arben Ramkaj.
"The Municipal Council of our city decided that we should not keep the heroes of our nation to remember them only on anniversary days, but to place arms on the greatest man this nation has produced and to have the opportunity to remember them every day that they are a source of inspiration for all Albanians. We have decided that on the right arm of the great George we will place Lekë Dukagjini, who is the man who, with his intelligence, knew the Albanian time so well that even today the laws in our families are the laws that that man set there. While on the left arm of Skanderbeg we will place a very great hero of our nation and we will call him 'The Stability of the Nation'. For us, he is Adem Jashari. With all these boys here and with the professor, we have opened a competition and we have made these sculptures that today we will announce the winner of these sculptures and we think that we will build these two very soon "The works of the great people of our nation and we thank you very much for being part of this mission. We think that we will give other values to our city. Governments and politics are examples that are forgotten. They are part of forced commemorations, because when they have the dates of birth or death, they remember that these great men and heroes also existed. They are a source of inspiration for every Albanian who has their roots in the family and not in politics," says Luca.
For sculptor Arben Bajo, this is a good initiative to elevate art and culture, as it is valuable to exalt such figures.
"It is rare for people in our country to organize such things to promote art and culture, whether in their business or for Albanian society. It is a great emancipation. Arts students are given the opportunity to express themselves through their art. I can only thank Gjergji for this initiative," said Bajo.
The winners of this competition were announced as two students, Renato Kullolli and Elton Vaska. “We also had a cleric as part of the jury, Dr. Professor Arben Ramka, who gave us a lot of help,” said Bajo.
Meanwhile, Gjergj Luca has two words for the student who worked on the portrait of Lekë Dukagjini. "I don't know if Lekë Dukagjini was a gentle man from Belsh, but may God bless him. He must have had a good family that inspired him with the values of Albanianness. He spoke his own words to the sculptures. May God bless him!", he wishes.
The winning students themselves have also praised this competition as a good opportunity for them.
"It's the first time I've participated in a competition and I've conceived it in my own way of working. It's a good opportunity for a student graduating from the Academy of Arts and it's a very good way for him to do something about his work," says the winner of the Lekë Dukagjini bust.
"It is Adem Jashari that I have thought of as the resistance of the nation. I have thought of him as a rock that is something strong and I think he is the resistance of our nation," says the student who won the Adem Jashari bust.
Now, in addition to Skanderbeg, the prominent figures Adem Jashari and Lekë Dukagjini will be honored on this mountainside, turning Rozafa Fish City into a city of art.
(BalkanWeb)
