Ferid Kola, sculptor of Shkodra spirit, unyielding activity of promoting art
By Albert Vataj
As much as sculptor, Ferid Kola stands high as a professor and civic activist, because in the humanity he is stronger than the challenge; His creative and unyielding spirit is what opposes the eternity he faces in every effort to win. Today, grizzled, it seems to have been poured into a glittering crown, where more than years, over four identities distinct in character and temperament, aggravates the present – the everyday that always finds reason to ruin, but who does not manage to get more than a haircut, a deepening and sound. How to speak not only with you, but with all those who must hear and feel this call: the presence of an artist who becomes indicative of a spiritual and civic state.
With his deep and ringing voice, he « stirred » our order on the streets of Shkodra that day. The theatricality of his communication is worthy of every scene, though he is an artist of another dimension – that of form that gives meaning and purpose to stone, mud, soul and time. He talks to me about Shkodra, a little about myself. In a browsing of memories, we take glances and commemorations of goods. Not everything is properly in the city we love strongly. We talk and argue about art, those high levels where eternal breathing breathes into the stone and transforms it into a work, where the legend drinks and is raised memorials, where the usual of beauty becomes the anthem of the extraordinary. Where everything that surrounds us is what we want and want.
And yet, many things in Shkodra could be better than they are today. We must break away from the politics and captivity of interest, to leave room for merit, fair competition and dignified representation. To get away from the mid -midcinarity, to raise a human substance and an integrity that ennobles beauty and marvels at the usual, so as not to force the talented and disappointed to seek opportunities elsewhere. We agree that not everything is as ideal as we dream of, but Shkodra has all the opportunities to be and remain what its sons have crowned for centuries as the « cradle of culture ».
Ferid Kola feels and expresses what we wish for Shkodra, because he accepts the responsibility the artist has in his time. Although art cannot say everything, he proves that many things must change – by work and civic will. Because tolerating problems legitimizes evil, turning it into a norm.
In this course our conversation took place that day. I cannot say that we found solutions to everything, but we definitely opened our hearts of that deep sensation that burns the soul, because we love things to be as Shkodra deserves – the city that may not be a place of wealth, but it is and must be a spiritual temple. And when so, it can always be felt, rise to any sublime act and remain Shkodra.
We came out of this circle of observations and reflections, and we talked about many others: about his experiences, about the long journey of mud and marble works, for broken souls that he has climbed to the height of the heavens, because he knew how to become a heartbeat in every chest and breath in every pain.
From his hands have emerged the legendary kings and glorious figures of Shkodra; They have reborn symbols and raised roofs of memory and pride, where our ambition is founded – not just Shkodra, but Albanian.
In his studio the whole story of our Arberia resides – from Gent to a voice broken into the spirit of a love that is not saturated with heaven and does not be caught in the sea.
He, Ferid Kola, is my friend. But, above all, it is a husband who carries the soul of a missionary, a father who raises a heaven where every fault finds forgiveness and every pain receives retribution. It is a confession that carries clutter, but also rest – a dimension that honors the beauty and sanctifies the human.
