ISMET
JONUZI
(Hysni
Recica & Dija)
Hello and welcome to UNMIK on air
with Hysni Recica and Sputnik Kilambi.
The universal language of art is
the only way and the only precondition for somebody to enter the big world of
an artist.
A sculptor living in Fushe Kosova,
has chosen the strongest weapon to say NO to violence, to war, and to
calamities. And that is with themselves, with the weapons he collected, placing
them in various positions, sometimes looking like animals; sometimes in the
shape of humans, sometimes like objects; walls, sometimes like emotions…even
like a symbol, in the form of letter V, implying victory.
Ismet Januzzi, who’s name is now
very familiar in eminent European galleries; in France, Switzerland, Germany,
FRY (Zagreb, Karlovac, Rijeka), in Tirana, is 42 years old and he comes from
Presheva valley. Januzzi is a graduate from the Academy of Arts in Pristina and
was student of the famous sculptor, professor Agim Cafdarbasha. Years of hard
work paid back with a fellowship from a French Foundation and from a German
Foundation; Hajnrih Bel.
Every artistic piece is a new
reality, the well-known composer Igor Stravinsky said, and in the postwar
Kosovo weapons have turned into exhibition objects. We ask Ismet Jonuzi, why he
chose weapons to express his ideas and emotions.
Ismet Jonuzi: The
artist feels the war deeper than ordinary people, and he wants to get something
out of it, I wanted to penetrate deeper in the horrors of war to explain how
aggressive and how terrible the war is. My feelings and my efforts focused on
how to explain that aggressiveness.
These are very interesting and
special sculptures, but will they remain this attractive in a distant future?
Ismet Jonuzi: I think
it is a universal topic at any time, since wars happened before they happened
in Kosovo, there will be wars after Kosovo, and they are happening, since there
will always be dictators, and oppressed people. This is why we have wars. I
think we in Kosovo are neither the first nor the last to experience war.
After he became known for his
drawings, Ismet Jonuzi moved on to artistic work with clay, mild woods,
plastic, sand, wood and metal chips, pebbles and other items used in the
everyday life. The relief sculpture, and installations are the fields where
this artist expresses his originality. A poet from Kosovo, defines the mystery
of Ismet’s sculptures in this way…
Dija: For
example, how much can a hand say, or one finger? What messages do they give in
this world? It is miraculous. Then the helmet he made for his grandfather using
guns, automatic guns, and small arms that have remained here in Kosovo sends
out a big message. I think this message should run across the world, especially
there where there is war, where people do not understand the freedom stands
above all, where people do not understand that people say everything on behalf
of freedom, while they violate freedom. I think that the model of Ismet Jonuzi
should be followed by many other artists, I think that this is a special school
as for the first time terrible emotions are caused to people, in order for
these emotions to later resist violence in general in the world. For me, he is
an artist that deserves wider recognition in order for the world to be pervaded
by his universal message.
Sometimes, after finishing his
work an artist has doubts about his piece; maybe his work does not meet the
expectations of art-lovers. With Ismet Jonuzi, this is not the case.
Ismet Jonuzi My work
is not tasteful for many people, maybe my work with iron and arms is a reaction
against taste, but it is something spiritual that raises concerns of people, it
is not something traditional, it has not been seen before.
The main motif of Ismet Jonuzi
work is the figure of the bull. The head of the Modern Art Museum in Germany,
Dr. Anet Lagler, says that the symbol of the bull is seen sometimes in its full
image, sometimes partially. This bulls emblematic figure, symbolizes energy,
strength and at the same time fragility. The bull of Mr. Jonuzi is like a
mythological figure of our time.
Ismet Jonuzi: The bull
is some sort of a personal symbolic, like it was Guernica for Picasso, but my
bull differs from the one of Picasso, which entered arena to fight, my bull is
not an original one, I can say it is a buffalo, which I have been followed since
my early childhood. I think it is my signature in my artistic, sculptural and
drawing works.
LINK: The last cycle of Ismet
Jonuzi’s artistic expressions are weapons, while the symbolic metaphor is a
continuous portrait of an artist confined in Resolution 1244. Maybe this is the
clearest message coming from him.
Ismet Jonuzi: I am here
within the framework of 1244. I think that any comment is redundant. It is me
myself here, it is my original work, not found anywhere else in the world,
everybody has its originality.
Dija: What is it you cannot see
here; the framework or yourself?
-it is me here within 1244
framework.
Dija: But why have you closed your
eyes?
-
I have closed eyes because I am not allowed anything beyond
1244.
And on that note we finish this
edition of UNMIK on Air, thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.