Part Two
Agim Rudi: And, I had a chance to get admitted in those…. In Slovenia it was impossible; I knew the situation, they don’t accept 150 Albanians bre, they had schools only for Slovenians and eventually they accepted Macedonians. Because Macedonians in former Yugoslavia weren’t really problematic, they lowered their heads and had it well. Even when they became a state they had no problems, they didn’t win it with war, those are Macedonians but I am connecting different topics, but this is how it was. And I had a chance, Agim could help me there for a new degree… therefore… since he was there he knew the situation better to help me a little but I said no, forget about it {claps}. And I left and got those, I got what I needed for the entrance exam, four portraits were needed, ten drawings, and I began drawing portraits… now I knew how to do portraits. Do you have any idea what I used to draw? Decan and a house and one of those {explains with hands}, I didn’t know anything, before I knew nothing, before but now I was in a totally different situation.
I did four portraits of the level… a few classes were for sculpture, Agim Çavdarbasha had just come to the Academy, and I did those portraits. I bought a nylon sponge, a huge sponge and I did two here, two there {explains with hands}, two sculptures with you know, two sculptures with you know, I got the drawings, I got in. It was the train that goes to Ljubljana, in Fushë Kosova at 11AM, I went there like that, I hopped on the bus and went to Fushë Kosova, and hopped on you know, and went to Ljubljana. A good thing was that I had money, the situation in my family was perfect, everything, Rafeti had come back from…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Belgrade…
Agim Rudi: From Belgrade, I started working at the Academy immediately, his salary was 1000 euros, 1000 marks, the salary was 1000 marks, do you even know what 1000 marks were, 1000 marks were a lot 40 years ago. Before 40 years and more, before 44 years, it was long ago, we had money at home… I said I wanted to study, we didn’t always have money, we all had our material problems. With no problem I went there, all my sisters, all of them sent me money, džeparac,[1] I went but didn’t know where, I didn’t know, I was in Ljubljana, I didn’t know anything. I went, God…
I entered the exam, five days of entrance exams then, seriously, a lot of people, a lot of people, and I was wrongly informed, Slovenian wasn’t similar to Albanian [he means Serbian]. Slovenian was a different language, not, not even people know that, today people don’t know and think that Slovenian is the same, no Slovenian is not the same, Slovenian is a totally different language, I had no clue. I would brag that I knew Serbian, that was a limitation, in Slovenia you’re limited if you speak Serbian, and it’s true…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: What was the five day exam like… I mean…
Agim Rudi: Five days…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: The first day was?
Agim Rudi: During the day… we would draw, and then make portraits and discuss, commission, a commission and where, at the end there was a commission with a lot of people and we were asked, “Why are you studying, what do you want to study this, why this…” I had made a big mistake. I had my Shkolla e Lartë diploma, I sent it, but they didn’t understand why I sent it. I went there for the first year and now they said, “We have a problem, you finished Shkolla e Lartë” and they told me, “You can if you want, you should have told us. You want to enroll in the second or third year?” “No” I told them, “I don’t want to enroll neither in the second year, nor… I don’t know sculpture. I am here to enroll in the first year.” He was, he was, they had never heard these words before in their lives, what a fool, I was there to learn about sculpture, I didn’t care about anything, I cared about nothing at all.
I went there, this was very important, it was very, very, very important. At the time that seemed pointless to me, big deal, as if… I only cared about how to get into the academy. I got in, perfect. They sent a telegraph, a friend, a guy because there were some Albanian students there, one from Gjakova, all the students, not many in Ljubljana, a hundred students. So this guy, Fahri Xharra is, he is constantly on Facebook, Fahri Xharra there, he studied textil. He sent it, wrote it, I told him, he sent the telegraph, “You got in.” I went crazy, I went crazy, I went crazy and then I told Agim Çavdarbasha, oh my God he was so happy, he was so happy that I didn’t ask for help. You know why? Because he said, “I would have helped you, but you would be left a cripple.” You understand? These were the little things, but very, in my life very important. And I went to Ljubljana…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: In which year?
Agim Rudi: I graduated in ‘77, minus four…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: ‘73
Agim Rudi: Like that. Ljubljana exhausted me. I meant to never leave Yugoslavia, but Slovenia wasn’t Yugoslavia, it was only in name. It was a different world, on one side Italy, on the other Germany {shows two sides with his hands}, very different cultures. But I didn’t know. I could see that it was something else entirely, people lived differently around here, differently here, and there in Slovenia differently. I was in a good financial situation, I mention it again. So I had no problems, just to study and that was it. I had a problem with Slovenian, I was, was, was learning it. I learned, I learned nothing, I spoke Slovenian, I spoke and improved.
And I started a routine, not in the Albanian style, I would put up a big piece of paper in my room and I would do 30 of those and on that paper I would draw a square and write what I did that day, what I learned that day, what… as an overachiever you know I wanted to really… and I started learning there, I improved, I began to understand other art as art, I lacked manners, I… our pedagogy was very behind here, here pedagogy was very underdeveloped. And slowly, slowly I’d hear some names, some new things, I heard… mostly it would get on my nerves and this was crucial (laughs), when they would mention Wassily Kandinsky…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Why so?
Agim Rudi: Well he was a mix between abstract art and realistic art, and I didn’t know those differences, I didn’t know yet, I knew and I didn’t know. I lacked in Slovenian, I lacked, I didn’t lack in books because I read them in Serbian, I couldn’t read in Slovenian. I was really famous because I could read Cyrillic, and Slovenians, no one knew (laughs), I was very famous. So I had no problems because they would come to you, students would offer, “I offer help with English, I offer help with French, I offer help with this…” I did the same, I had so many requests for Cyrillic as an exchange…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Why, where did you encounter it, where was Cyrillic used, in what? Documents?
Agim Rudi: In books…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Oh books…
Agim Rudi: Yes in books, books on aesthetics, art books, everything in Belgrade…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: They wrote them in Cyrillic?
Agim Rudi: They wrote in Cyrillic, they never wrote in Latin alphabet only in Cyrillic.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Oh, yes?
Agim Rudi: Yes (laughs) when you asked me again I said am I in the right mind, they wrote in Cyrillic.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: I did not… I thought they wrote in Latin alphabet…
Agim Rudi: No, they did not use Latin alphabet at all, it was only used in Zagreb.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: What did you do, did you transliterate it to the Latin alphabet?
Agim Rudi: No, I just translated.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Okay.
Agim Rudi: translated, it had a page, two pages, three pages or something, I translated. Someone had the texts in Serbian and the students there had this good habit, this was very good. I didn’t have any problems, everyone translated into English, one page, two pages, biographies. Especially biographies, because biographies you didn’t have to know, where Martins is, where this one is, and where this one was, and where he was born and stuff. You know, I understood a bit of Slovenian, partly, I couldn’t read Slovenian, my Serbian was perfect and so on…. And I read Politika, Subotnja Politika [Saturday’s Politics], the newspaper Subotnja Politika, it had critical perspectives on art, at the top. I transcribed this one.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: For art in Yugoslavia right…
Agim Rudi: For figurative art in Yugoslavia…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Okay.
Agim Rudi: And views abroad. Yes but Yugoslavia was so big, it had a lot of big people, a lot of big people. It is a big sin that you can’t look up these things at all. For example sculpture, the biggest man of former Yugoslavia, the biggest in art, the biggest of all time, I think is Ivan Meštrović.[2] Ivan the sculptor. The sculptor, I’ll just explain this and then I’ll come back again. This sculptor was crazy, cheated, he cheated himself with some kind of Yugoslavism, with some sort of slavism and then he made all of Belgrade’s memorials, Ivan Meštrović made all Belgrade’s memorials, all the assembly, Meštrović made all the horses and all those things. Montenegro’s assembly, Njgeoš’s grave and everything was by Me… Meštrović. Meštrović did in Slovenia.
He was really big, then he left, during this time he left for America. Even in America, in the center of Chicago he had… there are Meštrović’s sculptures, he won a worldwide competition with [a sculpture of] Indians throwing, and he really, a really big sculpture, the horse this way… So I am telling how big he is you know, America doesn’t know who you are, if you are Croatian or what you are…. He was Croatian Meštrović, but he was confused with the Yugoslavism, he was crazy… you should read that too, you should learn that, you should learn that artist. People of a high category, no matter what they are, you should know them, you should know who they are, you should know who Nikola Tesla is. He is a hero in America. It is a big name.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Did he have any sculptures here before, Meštrovići?
Agim Rudi: Where?
Erëmirë Krasniqi: In Kosovo so we can contact…
Agim Rudi: No, we didn’t have those here, Kosovo was nothing, thankfully there are some in Belgrade, in Croatia, all of them are there. So he was really big, not even they knew how big he was, how big… what a big artist, you know? I do not know where this came from…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: We were talking about the reviews that you read in Politika at the time.
Agim Rudi: And yes, hmm, hmm, hmm… and Subotnja Politika [The Saturday’s Politics], I woke up in the middle of Ljubljana, I didn’t want to, I didn’t want Belgrade [to occupy my mind] there, imagine Politika, a newspaper on politics that had great art reviews. One day I was reading, one day I was reading how in Munich Wassily Kandinsky Retrospective exhibition was about to open. I believed, that I didn’t know anything at all, they kept talking and I didn’t understand what they were saying, I didn’t understand at all what they were saying. I didn’t know what abstract art was, in Shkolla e Lartë no one taught us that, they worked abstractly, but abstract naturalism, you know, half abstract somehow half… do not mess around, say it directly not this ways because I don’t know, break it down for me, open my eyes. I didn’t say a word, I was frustrated, Slovenians knew all the world, Slovenian students, colleagues, they knew, they had seen, I hadn’t seen. I didn’t know, I didn’t know what the Louvre was, I didn’t know, I didn’t know anything, it was then that I saw, I thought that I knew. I didn’t know anything.
I woke up one night, Thursday evening and I took, I bought one rucksack {explains with hands} to go like, like… that time they went… it was like hippie, you know like this with a sack and everything, everything, everything… without speaking German nor English, nothing at all, I left, I went to Munich. I went to Munich, I took this [sleeping bag] so I could sleep somewhere in the park, I knew that if there is a museum then there is a park, in Austria… and… I mean Munich… and I had to learn the routine of these trips, how to know? You know without speaking the language, without knowing anyone… then many years, many years, ten years I went like this, I traveled without knowing anything. I learned the system without speaking the language, you know? You don’t know the struggle when you travel and you don’t speak the language.
And I wanted to sleep in the park but the police wouldn’t let me, you had sleep at night and you had to go into museums during the day, we left our thing in the station those [boxes], somehow you left them {explains with hands}, you learned these things without speaking the language, it was hard to learn them (laughs)… I entered the Kandinsky museum, my God so many floors Kandinsky. I wanted to go crazy with how much didn’t I know, but I read a lot, I read a lot about Kandinsky, who he is and what he is but I didn’t understand. You know… the beginnings of abstract art and everything… there, there I, there while reading, because I wanted to be the best student, I didn’t want to be mediocre I wanted to be the best, the best out of the Slovenians, they were all Slovenians.
I looked at the blue period, the green period this way, I started mechanically to learn what they were… I went, I couldn’t stay from the morning, I couldn’t stay from 9AM to, to 5PM in the afternoon. I paid two tickets, first I went out and slept in the grass for an hour because like that, and then the second ticket, nonsense but this way… I came, I went, I stayed for two days, two days in the museums that for me were like, like discovering America. I saw Kandinsky, they drove me mad with this Kandinsky, I didn’t understand it. I followed that, I didn’t tell anyone that I was in Munchen, at all, at all, at all…
Read, read at night like crazy, read that one… about his life and about his views, I still didn’t know, I still didn’t know them aesthetically, but I understood them before the time. I started, I couldn’t help myself when they talked, I said, “But no, this is the blue period, it has… it’s a short period…” Kandinsky was crazy with music, he wanted to make painting by obeying the principles of music. But you can’t with the principles of music, he saw it himself that he couldn’t but I spoke highly (laughs) in front of the students, “What happened with Agim, God, God?” I changed, I started to change. And then it didn’t have a stopping point, it didn’t stop. Then in the evening I didn’t go home, at 7PM I was in the library, the Academy’s library, the Academy had seven… from Monday to Friday.
I sculpted all day long, I worked on my sculpture all day long with or without a schedule I didn’t care, I didn’t care about the time, I was in the studio. And in the evening I went to the library, Saturday and Sunday, Sunday I was with Albanians. I made myself stay an hour with the Albanians, two hours because… I did not (laughs)… to hang out with Albanians, they all hung out together, ten people, twelve people in one place. They talked about life, politics and it got in my nerves. In Slovenia… in Slovenia, you can’t stay for long, twelve people how they stayed, God (laughs). Sometimes they even made beans and I don’t know what, it was good one hour or two hours…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Did it influence your work…
Agim Rudi: A lot…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: This information and…
Agim Rudi: A lot, a lot…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: This exposure…
Agim Rudi: A lot and… they came, but everything needs reciprocating. Students from Santa Cruz came, I have the poster, from America, I have the poster because I keep forgetting where they were from, from California something…. They came to exhibit with Ljubljana’s students in the town’s gallery and I don’t know… I don’t know what that deal was, on that poster was written who they were and everything…. And they selected us from the students, it didn’t matter, they selected us from the first year and second and stuff, but, I was in the second year. Three of my works were in the town’s gallery in Ljubljana, I thought that I had become the best, the best in the world. For me that was the best in the world because three, three of my works only, oh God, I was so happy, I was about to go crazy, I was about to go crazy…
It was necessary to face these problems also, with these problems too, these are artist’s problems, a lot especially in the beginning, because it looks like, you become snobbish. You think highly of yourself but it should be rational “the thinking highly of yourself” and it should be in accordance with reality (laughs). Then I found out that they were good works, that they wouldn’t expose them if they weren’t good works because it doesn’t work like that there in Ljubljana, knowing someone, I didn’t know anyone (laughs). This was a big part… however the biggest thing in Ljubljana was that different cultures, the culture got to you, you went to Vienna once, you went crazy. You went to Venice, you went crazy, the world lived, Slovenia’s world, it was a vibrant cultural life, the cultural life was well developed. In Slovenia there were strange exhibitions, Germans, from everywhere.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Was this your first exhibit, this in Slovenia?
Agim Rudi: Yes, in the Gallery?
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Yes.
Agim Rudi: Yes in the gallery I always mark that one, I always write that in my biography, it was… it wasn’t who knows what really, but for me it was so important really, a lot… so big, hey… students exhibition, however, but three of my works, they didn’t take that from everyone, they took only one from everyone. Slow down, think of it, where, how three of my works, everything is, I am good. I came to that conclusion that I was not bad, I knew of Kandinsky, I knew abstract art, realist art, it was nothing, it was nothing.
And this, this is it, it… we were nurtured by different cultures. Then it was so important to see big people, for example, Slovenia’s assembly, the assembly is done in a relief, here you can look somewhere in the… it is a relief, with silver sculptures, all, hundreds, hundreds of sculptures. Do you know who made them? My professor, professor Zdenko Kalin.[3] Zdenko Kalin is a unique professor, he was a really big man, he gave the beginnings of… But he studied in Zagreb when Ivan Meštrović was there, you know I am slowly linking things. Ivan Meštrović was not his professor but he was a professor in the academy. Someone had a class, someone a class…
Do you know what it means to have Meštrović, you know you grow, you become big, you become big. Then when he finished the Academy, after he went to Karare, in Karare there is a stone, a stone… where they take out rocks, marble. That stone, the plates of them all in Saudi Arabia are made from Karar, Michelangelo’s best sculptures… all Michelangelo’s sculptures are made from Karar stone. Families live there, 500-600 families have lived there for thousands of years, they have their homes, they sleep and they make…. My professor went there, sick, and he was not how it should be, he went (laughs), he stayed four years, he lived in Karare to learn the stone-carving profession and he had a problem because these Slovenians are so good, a good nation, they are nationalists. But they don’t say this, we say this, we do immediately and we don’t understand the word nationalism that much but even when we begin understanding something about ourselves we mention that we are nationalists, we show off.
But no the nationalist is he who, he wanted to make sculpture, Slovenian sculpture. He lived in Titoja, Tito, Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslavia’s president, he had one place, Brione in Croatia, it was there he took all the artists. Even the big artists had their studios, this Zdenko Kalin had his studio there, whenever he wanted he went there. He was a big man, I’ve learned a lot, he was, now I know, Neoclassic, old Neoclassic with old standards. When I went there he, he went, he started to get ready for retirement, he was in that age, he smoked Yugoslavia cigarettes, he smoked Yugoslavia cigarettes, it was there that he took out {explains with his hands} he he took out his match.
I’ve learned a lot from him, I’ve learned things you can’t learn in art, you can’t learn some things, there are some things that are not written in a book. Some things are written, in art they don’t write, you have to see it. You had to see him when he went to make a sculpture, Zdenko Kalin, when he was immersed in his work. I’ve learned more from that minute, I’ve learned more than from other things, more than from books I’ve read and art is… it has its secrets. It’s not God’s work, it is man’s work, man, man that has worked a lot, that knows so much, that has worked a lot and he knows. Not something that God brought to him, no, it’s not God’s work, God has Its place for other things, not to teach you to do sculpture. Not to teach you to make music. “I have this project, God gave it to me.” Singer, rapper, stupid, nonsense, not any… not stupid, rap also is good and stuff but drop it…
So I was with Zdenko Kalin for two years he was my professor, I’ve learned everything in Slovenia that there was, it was with Zdenko Kalin. For example, RTV Ljubljana, you know they had one, he had a guy naked with these {explains with hands}… with, with, with straw, with this he made music, naked, and that was an icon of Ljubljana’s television, it was a work of this Zdenko Kalin. I wanna tell you a lot, a lot, a lot…. And I’ve gained a lot from him, he too dealt with art, he didn’t deal with those…. After I was told some details, that I can talk for details too…. One time early in the morning, since I used to go, 15 to 7AM all my life I’ve been going to the Academy, I’ve never been there at 10 to 7AM, I went there at 15 to 7AM, 15 to 7AM I went to the Academy and at 7PM I went to the library.
You should be sick, it eats you the big place eats you, you know how? You can’t become the best, you can’t become the best, you should fight it with other things (laughs) with other premises. And I used to go early in the morning and when I went one day in the morning I used the time from 7AM to 9AM, no one used to come in the Academy, never ever, students of the Academy didn’t come to the Academy from seven, eight in the morning. I came, I didn’t care for anyone, me and the sculpture. And when the professor came I was sculpting, “What professor…” I loved him so much, so much, and he said, “Do you have any problems?” The professor said to me, “Do you have any financial problems?” You know, I said, “I don’t have any material problems,” I said “Except that they sent me from home and I have found the job here, in these museums.” During summer I earned a lot of money, a lot, I worked in the museum’s restoration department, this way I also had a lot of money, I traveled by plane bre. Though, traveling by plane my wife taught me that when she came to visit there…
And I said, “I don’t have problems, and etc…” “What are the worries that you have that make you do this, what are your sorrows?” I said, “Listen professor, I feel bad to tell you a lot of things you know this but I said now we don’t have this… we are annexed from Serbia, Yugoslavia’s state took us from Albania and we are in Yugo…” “And how aren’t you, isn’t part, Kosovo isn’t part of, of Serbia?” “No, it is part of Albania, don’t you know this?” He said, “I didn’t know.” Then I said, “We, I only dare to listen to 10 to 15 percent of Albanian songs on Radio Pristina, 80 percent, 90 percent I don’t dare to listen to.” “Where do you listen to them?” “I secretly listen to them on Radio Tirana.” I said, “I’ve read Dostoyevsky all in Serbian, because there isn’t… doesn’t have…” It wasn’t translated in, in Albanian, everything basic is in Serbian, I finished high school in Serbian. I had Albanian, just in the Albanian language course. I said, “I can’t sing my song, this is a song, he sings,” I said, “he doesn’t moan or shout, he sings.”
Those songs… I connected them with Këngë e Pakëndueme,[4] I made this connection, my idea, the idea of this sculpture, the idea of this sculpture was Këngë e Pakëndueme. He said, “For real? Why didn’t you ever tell me about these things?” And I then told him, he tried to understand but he couldn’t, he who is full cannot understand the hungry. And he was kind of a communist, a good sculptor but a communist. Communist, you know, he was part of the party, which made it possible for him to live as a king, the king of kings and if now… I don’t know, I haven’t tried it, no one asked me to live as a king because maybe I’d give in (laughs), do you understand because life like this is beautiful, this was with…
Then I… something else happened in the third year I, another professor came at me, Slavko Tihec.[5] Slavko Tihec was… the monuments in Slovenia were made by no one besides Slavko Tihec in that period, you know he had a great reputation, very modern. He worked a lot in France, he did his Master’s degree there in France under the mentorship of César [Baldaccini], he is a very well known sculptor, César. Sculpture is, it has its characteristics. Until I learned from Kalin how to work with the chisel, then I didn’t need anything else here unfortunately (laughs). Then until the principles of the material and form, principles, rules, the good side of sculpture is not only the sculpting part, you know…
From him I learned other things, at all times you have to be in tune with time, also in art you have to be in tune with time, everything is okay as long as you are in tune with the time. If you’re not in tune with the time, imagine yourself wearing a blouse that was worn in the 18th century, imagine how stupid that is, or if you eat 18th century food. And us… things, things should be with the time, sculpture also and music and all arts should be in tune with the time, they should be in tune with the time.
Now he brought me to this other time but I was ready, I was ready, I knew the difference… I knew what Picasso did, what Henry Moore did, what he did… who Michelangelo was. I knew the truth, not one truth of, of… told like in comic books, but now I knew the truth how it should be known. How it lived with the time, how it corresponded with time, what was the level at the time, if you don’t know those things then don’t do sculpture, don’t paint, you should know what time you are living in. That is important now, it is another art, 18th century art is different, 19th century art is different. Impressionists are beautiful, beautiful, now it has ended, I just look at them and I feel sorry for them, okay. It has ended.
It’s a different time, it is the 21st century, you should find what it is coming next, what is for the 21st century, you should be a smart artist, well established, you cannot be poorly established. It has passed, it ended, “God, God will you bring me the song, God will bring me a song, it will tell me what to do.” No, no, you have to follow the laws and rules of the world, you should know where, from where your art derives, where? What is the source of your art? And I learned a lot of things from this Tihec, I learned from this Tihec and my eyes were opened widely, another window opened up. I am not underestimating this, he was big but he would become big, because to become big, time should pass a little, you know, you can’t just become big immediately…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: And he taught you to respond in a more immediate way to what was happening in the art world?
Agim Rudi: He taught us, taught us a lot, but I observed his work, he didn’t need to explain much to us.
Erëmirë Krasniqi: How were they, what, what was his style?
Agim Rudi: His work, the point was something else, he grabbed a thing, a, a movement a thing and from that he would create a story, from that he created the idea and began the sculpture. He, he made the partisans, he, he made the partisans he, he, naked people and partisans he… but that isn’t enough, I know it isn’t (laughs) that isn’t enough, just to make partisans you know, you need something else, you know, you need a little more of course.
I had this student of… I’m going to go ahead and tell you. In the beginning [of the academic year] a student came, just after the war, here, the war had just ended. The student took the entrance exam, he was one of the best, so good and I told him, “You know what? Tell me all your struggles, tell me your struggles don’t keep them for yourself, you have your professor here and you can confess everything to him. Like, like, like one does with the rabbi… like to him, like to him, like to the one you go to for confession, confess to me your struggles. Of course what falls in the field of sculpture, if you have any struggles, tell me, I’ll help you.” He said, “Yes professor, I’ll tell you,” he said, “I will immediately start to sculpt Adem Jashari.”[6] He was young, charming, good, useful. Well I said, “You know what, I won’t stop you from doing Adem Jashari, but you still haven’t learned enough to do Adem Jashari, you should do some other steps in the first, second, third year and then when you do Adem Jashari it will reflect, it will show, you can’t now…” “But no, I have done it once.” In his way he told me he had done it once, but leave it at that (laughs), I mean you did it once…
And as it happens, he was in the fourth year, somehow I didn’t stop him because to make a large-scale figure, technically the skeleton needs a lot of things, and is it worth trying if you’re still not, if you don’t have extensive experience? And I couldn’t take him out of it and stuff but the fourth year came, the third year, also in the third year I told him, “Do you want to do this, we have to sculpt this figure, to make a figure of a really important person, a man of war, a man of letters… where is your commitment to, your commitment from three years ago, can you do it?” (laughs) Not only did he not do it but he spent all his time finding excuses. He started to get into another world of art, he was [caught up] in other secrets, secrets that were concerning him, and now that he finished the Academy he works for money, he makes memorials and…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Was your relation with Tihec similar to this?
Agim Rudi: With?
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Tihec. Slavko Tihec, your professor that…
Agim Rudi: Yes, it was, it was, it was… from each and every one you got something, from each and every one. From him I’ve learned love towards the material, art is made with material. Art isn’t made with wind, it isn’t a tone, a tone in music, but it is the material, he knew the mercifulness of the material {explains with his hands} he appreciated, he appreciated stone, he appreciated the act in stone, do you understand, he appreciated it, I learned that appreciation from him. But from him, from him, no, I learned other things, construction, I’ve learned how, how… dimension, what dimensions mean, and then dimension is, art is dimension, the size and some other things, some other things entirely different which when I registered them, they became a lot for me. Another advantage I had, the advantage of the Academy of Ljubljana, now I am enumerating what was good about the Academy of Ljubljana, we had aesthetics and theory and a lot of these courses… we had anatomy, these were taken, the Academy would buy these, these corpses and it was our task for the anatomy course to…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: For real?
Agim Rudi: Nonsense, muscles, a muscle…
Erëmirë Krasniqi: Michelangelo and Da Vinci used to do this.
Agim Rudi: That way, that way Michelangelo learned anatomy… personally I think it is unnecessary, but they liked the old ways also, the older generations liked to be like Leonardo, to be like Michelangelo, to be…. And now the professors were like, they knew that I was Albanian, they were like, “Agim… so good we have Agim so he can assist us.” And I fainted once from that… I fainted, I barely got on my feet (laughs). I said, “You know what, leave it alone that I, I don’t know if I’ll come to the class, to assist you, no way…” You know, Albanians are like that you know, carnal …
[1] Serb: džeparac, literally means pocket money.
[2] Ivan Meštrović (1883-1962) was born in Vrpolje, Croatia. He was a renowned 20th century Croatian sculptor and architect. Meštrović particularly defined his practice through religious artistic production, mostly made of wood. He was influenced mainly by Byzantine and Gothic architecture. The most renowned works from his early period are Crucifix and Madonna.
[3] Zdenko Kalin (1911 – 1990) was born in Solkan, Slovenia. He was a renowned sculptor in former Yugoslavia. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Kalin became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1948. Later, in 1965, he became the rector of the same arts institution.
[4] Millosh Gjergj Nikolla (1911-1938) was an Albanian poet and writer, known under his nom de plume Migjeni. Këngë e Pakëndueme [The Unsung Songs] is one of his most well-known poems.
[5] Slavko Tihec (1928-1993) was born in Maribor, Slovenia. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. He was a well-known sculptor in former Yugoslavia, especially for his World War Two Memorials dedicated to fallen soldiers.
[6] Adem Jashari (1955-1998), also known as the “legendary commander,” was a founder of the KLA and is celebrated as its foremost leader and symbol of Kosovo’s independence. He died in March 1998, together with his family of twenty – half of them underage girls and boys – in a shootout with Serb troops during a three-day siege of his home in Prekaz.