Alush Mullaj ‘Et’hem Bey Moskee’ in Tirana Albanie
tijdelijk adres: paradijs
Chris den Engelsman
in de schaduw van de minaret
toont een luid toeterend plein
ons hoe een toekomst
er ooit uitzag en werd
de hemel wolkt
rond minaret en klokkentoren
met liefde: gebouw, vernietigd, gerestaureerd
in atheïstisch heil gesloten
binnenin een elegant braamrood
ogenblik oase van eeuwigheid
een dik bebrilde paradijsvogel
verkoopt me zijn volksschilderkunst
buiten valt woordeloos
in stoffige stralen door het glas
hier kunt u nog een kort verslag lezen van mijn verblijf in Tirana/ Albanië
via deze link kunt u dit korte verhaal in een iets aangepaste vorm en vormgeving lezen
Et’hem Bey-moskee
temporary address: paradise
Chris den Engelsman
in the shadow of the minaret
shows a loud honking square
us how a future
once looked and is
a cloud covered heaven moves
around bell tower and minaret
with love: building, destroyed, restored
closed in atheistic salvation
within, a haven of eternity
a small elegant red berry moment
a thick bespectacled bird of paradise
sells me his peace of heaven
outside is falling endlessly
in dusty rays through the glass
Et’hem Bey-moskee en klokkentoren
Et’hem Bey-moskee
In 1789 begon Molla Bey, de kleinzoon van de vermeende stichter van Tirana Sulejman Pasja, met de bouw van de moskee. Het gebouw werd door zijn zoon Haxhi Et’hem Bey in 1821 afgebouwd. De moskee is een van de oudste gebouwen van Tirana en werd meerdere malen gerestaureerd, onder andere in 1870 en 1985.
Tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog werd in Tirana hevig gevochten: in het najaar van 1944 wisten de Russen en Albanezen de Duitse bezetters te verdrijven. Hierbij werd de moskee zwaar beschadigd: de minaret werd kapotgeschoten en delen van het interieur verbrandden. Na de oorlog werd de moskee door de nieuwe communistische machthebbers gerestaureerd. Van 1967 tot 1991 was de moskee gesloten, toen secretaris-generaal Enver Hoxha alle religies verbood en Albanië uitriep tot de eerste atheïstische staat ter wereld. Hoewel sommige religieuze gebouwen werden afgebroken, bleven de meeste behouden, zeker de historisch en architectonisch belangrijke gebouwen; er werden alleen geen religieuze bijeenkomsten meer gehouden. In plaats daarvan werden seculiere festivals georganiseerd. De Et’hem Bei-moskee werd omgevormd tot een museum. Op 18 januari 1991 opende de moskee ondanks een verbod van de overheid haar deuren. De politie greep niet in toen honderden moslims de eerste gebedsdienst in tientallen jaren bijwoonden, gesteund door naar schatting 10 tot 15.000 mensen buiten de moskee.
De toegang (portico) is omgeven door 15 zuilen, die 14 bogen dragen. De bogen zijn versierd met stillevens van planten in frescotechniek. Deze plantmotieven in arabeskvorm komen terug in het interieur van de moskee. De gebedsruimte is voorzien van een koepeldak. Rechts van de gebedsnis (mihrab) in de qiblamuur bevindt zich het preekgestoelte (minbar).
De minaret, de toren van de moskee, is versierd met in steen uitgevoerde plantmotieven. De elegante veelhoekige toren staat op een vierkante basis, een vorm die weinig voorkomt in de islamitische bouwkunst; meestal zijn minaretten rond of vierkant.
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| Et’hem Bey-moskee interieur | |
Bij het schilderij van de Et’hem Bey moskee, zoals bovenaan deze pagina weergegeven kreeg ik een stencil met onderstaande informatie over de kunstenaar Alush Mullaj. Ik heb het gescand en geef het graag in ongewijzigde vorm door.
The painter Alush Mullaj is a member of the Albanian Artists’ League since’ 1978: He was born in Mezhgoran (Tepelena) in 1935.
The artistic creation of this painter is a sincere one as much as an Albanian one: Inside the love for art he touch in continuously a recognized Iived thing and being found of the painter himself. The impressionable peculiarity revealing in each of his works show a high rate of his artistic energy mapped by the admired modest techniques.
The Albanian authentic surroundings, that the artist creates, being not aware of makes everyone who loves the art travel from North to South, from TIrana to Kruja, from Berat to Gjirokastra everyone in Albania. The whole work is treated. by graphical techniques, sometimes less colored and sometimes Iess. A dreamy softness springing of author’s work beat on the visitor.
It isn’t intended a comparison of great European artists’ work of the last century, just like Edward Lear, Charles. Cockrrell etc. Those theme have been the Albanian reality with techniques used by the painter Alush Mullaj belonging to another style, simpIer one is successfully driven.The painter Alush Mullaj is an authentic, lovely, human and romantic artist.
Shaban Hysa
Honored Artist
Alush Mullaj is a well known painter of our tradition. He works as a painter since many years and, is distinguished in paintings, landscapes and colored graphics.
His works have a national character. They are done with love and sincerity, the compositions are well done. The color of the landscape is warm graphical.Mr. Alush has participated in many national and: personal exhibitions. Judging on his beautiful and sincere work, I personally think that is valuable for an international public.
Professor Agim Zajmi
PeopIe’s Artist
Ibrahim Kodra ‘Et’hem Bey moskee’ 1938 67 x 90 cm Nationale kunstgalerij Tirana Albanie
Informatie van de Nationale kunstgalerij in Tirana Albanie over:
Ibrahim Kodra (1918 – 2006)
Ibrahim Kodra was born in Ishëm, TIrana in 1918. He spent his childhood in Albania in an atmosphere of political end economic hardship, most especially in the years following the end of the First World War. In the 1930’s, having finished his general education, Kodra joined the newly opened art school in TIrana “The Albanian Drawing School” In 1938, benefiting from the close relations of King Zog’s Albania to Italy, Kodra managed to get a scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, in Milan. He then moved to Italy to study painting with the esteemed professors Carra, Funi and Carpi. After his academic studies concluded, Kodra decided to stay on in Milan. Though this period coincided with the difficult end of the Second World War, Kodra opened his own atelier.
Beginning from 1948 and continuing through the 1950s Kodra became part of important collective exhibitions organized in Italy and later on in Paris, France. His artistic career culminated in 1953 when he participated in the Exhibition of the University of Paris where his work was shown alongside Picasso, Chagall, Matisse, Modigliani and many others. From that moment on, Kodra became an established painter in Italy and beyond, exhibiting individually in various museums and galleries in Europe and eventually in New York, USA (Princess Hall Gallery, 1963).
In 1973 Ibrahim Kodra received the award of the French Academy of Arts, Sciences and literature.
He lived and worked until the end of his life (2006) in his atelier in Milan on Ragosta Square.
lbrahim Kodra’s paintings are a strange combination of worlds: the original! one carried over from his homeland, with its motives and history, often labeled oriental by the Italian press, coupled with the world of his western art influences born out of the avant-garde movements at the dawn of 20th century. It is this fusion that makes Kodra quite a unique artist. Art critic Carlo Bo has suggested that although Kodra comes from a different culture, he enters into a relationship with Western art and the Western world as an equal, resisting deference to its norms and aesthetics. If anything, he employs the language of the avant-garde (cubism and surrealism), to reinforce his different background and original language, which plainly shows its ancient past. Thus, Kodra’s Cubism is not an attempt to dismantle the object but to remake it, turning his painting into a high precision tool, helping to better understand and judge Western art and culture, choosing instead the path of a critical encounter with the latter.
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Fatmir Haxhin 1927-2001 Fitimtari ‘The victor‘ (1979)
Nationale kunstgalerij Tirana Albanie Fatmir Haxhin 1927-2001 – Fitimtari – ‘The victor‘ (1979) detail
Nationale kunstgalerij Tirana Albanie
detail met op de achtergrond de Et’hem Bey Moskee en klokkentoren
zoals die in 1944 tijdens WO II zwaar beschadigd raken
