On the paths of war by Hektor Dule

Posted on 01/07/2022 by Michael

On the paths of war

On the paths of war by Hektor Dule

Rather than give my own interpretation of this statue I thought to reproduce the article below which includes a number of interpretations of the statue of the Partisan and the women offering him a refreshing drink. It originally appeared as Eros on the Roads of War: Some Brief Notes on Hektor Dule’s Në Udhët e Luftës For and Against the Decadences of the Fles by Raino Isto

First exhibited in during the National Exhibition dedicated to the 30th Anniversary of National Liberation, Hektor Dule’s Në Udhët e Luftës [On the Paths of War] (also called Në Rrugën e Luftës) now stands in Tirana’s Great Park,[1] near to the fountains (and also to the new assortment of exercise equipment installed in the last few years). The bronze statue, depicting an Albanian woman holding up a jug of water and allowing a partisan soldier to drink deeply from it, seems appropriately placed in its pseudo-natural surroundings. It is, after all, about the nourishment of the body in the course of its struggles…what better location for it that the Great Park, where the body—in exercise, in sex, in relaxation and communion with an artificial nature—is fundamental to the creation and experience of space?

In 1975, writing of the work’s appearance in the exhibition (in its earlier version done in plaster), Fatmir Haxhiu wrote that ‘precisely in this moment both ordinary and life-affirming, in this fundamentally simple act—one that may people have encountered during the war years (a mother giving a jug of water to a partisan)—the artist struggles to show the love and intimacy that our people felt for the partisans, and the support that ordinary people gave to the partisans during the National Liberation War. And the artist achieves his goal. The two figures are connected to each other in a conceptual unity and by the complete harmonization of their forms.’[2] Later, Haxhiu writes, ‘It is an intimate work’ [my emphasis].[3] The remainder of his article praises Dule (who at this point was one of the important figures in a new generation of Albanian sculptors, best known for the Mushqeta monument and his work with the famous ‘monumental trio’ of K. Rama, Sh. Hadëri, and M. Dhrami), offers the typically supportive assessment of his treatment of themes from the National Liberation War, and makes some minor aesthetic criticisms aimed at his future improvement as a sculptor.

Without dismissing the relevance of the ever-present theme of the partisan struggle, and certainly without wishing to poke fun at either Haxhiu’s analysis or Dule’s work, I would like to suggest a slightly different interpretation of Në Udhët e Luftës. Perhaps it is more accurate to say: I wish to expand upon our understanding of the themes of the partisan struggle precisely by pausing as we read the words love and intimacy, and considering what sculptural traditions Dule’s work is truly in dialogue with. In short, I would like to introduce (or perhaps, since so much popular discourse seems so committed to separating the two, to reintroduce) the question of the body, sensuality, and sex into the discussion of Albanian socialist realist sculpture.

For it seems undeniable to me that Dule’s sculptural group carries an immense sexual charge (and not just because of some vague associations with what goes on elsewhere in the Great Park). If Haxhiu’s analysis of the work seems to avoid this aspect, I think the fact that he uses the words ‘love and intimacy’ to characterize the work indicates his awareness of the issues potentially broached by the work and an active attempt to undercut them. In much the same way, I think that Dule is trying to use the tropes of a certain sculptural tradition in the context of socialist realism in order partially to undermine them and partially to harness them.

To see the eroticism of Dule’s sculpture, we need only compare it to a work that I dare say it was actually intended to be in dialogue with: Clodion’s Nymph and Satyr Carousing (also known as The Intoxication of Wine), 18th century (ca. 1780–90), terracotta, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Clodion’s work, which straddles (as the sculptor himself did) the turn towards the Neoclassical in sculpture with the more playful sensuality of the Rococo, is a kind of decadent mirror of Dule’s work. In Clodion: a satyr, the preeminent mythical being of male lust, leans back, allowing himself to rest upon a stone as he lifts one animal leg off the ground and pulls a naked nymph to him, his fingers digging into the flesh of her back. She leans into him, straddling his left leg, wrapping her right arm around his neck, and holds a goblet of wine above his mouth, pouring. In Dule: an Albanian woman, barefoot and dressed in garb that suggests she must be a villager) stands before a male partisan. Her feet are slightly apart, and one of his booted feet steps forward, placed firmly between hers. Her left arm and shoulder are drawn back, her clothing flowing out a bit behind her, and her right hand reaches out to steady a full, rounded jug as the partisan holds it in his right hand, by its handle, above his head. His head is thrown back, the jug held a few inches from his open mouth to allow the water to flow down his throat. His left shoulder is likewise thrown back, exposing his chest, and he braces his weight on his left leg. His left hand steadies his rifle at waist height, as its barrel juts out phallically, but directed away from the woman. The only contact between the two bodies takes place between her sleeve and his chest as she steadies the jug, but she stares directly at his face as he drinks in a fixed gaze that connects the two emotionally, physically, and compositionally. Like Clodion’s pair, Në Udhët e Luftës rewards viewing in the round, shifting perspectives that give us different views of the two bodies and their intimate connections.

I do not think that Dule’s sculpture intends to posit for its viewer a narrative of sexual engagement between the village woman and the partisan he shows, although that is certainly possible.[4] Rather, I think that Dule takes the tradition of which Clodion is emblematic (a Neoclassical sensibility, but with one foot still in the aristocratic tastes of the Rococo,[5] celebrating not only the sobriety of antiquity but also its Bacchic excesses) and attempts to overcome it in the context of socialist realism. Socialist realism was, after all, as much a ‘logic of cultural supplementarity, a logic that established itself by qualifying previous aesthetic traditions that were already…known’ (as Devin Fore asserts), as it was a style in itself.[6] At the same time, however, he brings sensuality into socialist realism, offering a view of the National Liberation War—in its most ‘ordinary’ and ‘life-affirming’ moments—as a struggle that includes the sensual gratification of the body and its desires, of the partisan reinvigorated physically by his encounter with the village mother. There is no need to digress into Freud, and love, and the death drive (though indeed one could) to consider the equation of war, sexuality, and physical release that Në Udhët e Luftës presents. As much as Haxhiu seems careful to ensure that ‘love and intimacy’ have strictly Platonic meanings in the context of Dule’s sculptural pair, the suggestion of sexual fullness present in the jug, the rifle held stiffly at waist-level, the partisan’s head thrown back, and the assertive offering of the village woman trace the contours of a very different set of connotations.

One could certainly go further, and perhaps one should. All I mean to suggest here is the necessity of reasserting the body and its pleasures—sexual and sensual—at the heart of socialist realist sculpture (and art in general) in Albania (and elsewhere, of course). Works like Në Udhët e Luftës reveal the tension of inheriting the sculptural tradition of bodily desire made materially manifest, and the rich possibilities of bringing that ‘decadent’ tradition into the context of the National Liberation War narrative—of denying the pleasures of the flesh, but also of reaffirming them in the context of sacrifice and struggle. It should also remind us that the war years were not simply a clash of battalions and strategies, of ideas and ideologies, but also of bodies and their desires.

[1] I would welcome anyone with information about the precise year in which the bronze version of the statue was placed in the park—I confess I have no information regarding this placement.
[2] Fatmir Haxhiu, ‘Në Udhët e Luftës: Shënime rreth grupit skulptural të H. Dules,’ Drita, 28 September 1975.
[3] Ibid.
[4] And the narrative itself seems plausible, though I have read of no accounts that discuss the occurrence and/or frequency of sexual dalliances between partisans and the ‘ordinary people’ that gave them support and shelter during the war.
[5] Indeed, what style or period could more fully epitomize the ‘decadence’ of bourgeois culture—that perennial enemy of socialist society—than the Rococo?
[6] Devin Fore, Realism After Modernism: The Rehumanization of Art and Literature (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2012), 244

Location

In the centre of Tirana Park.

GPS

41.31374401
19.81815702

DMS

41° 18′ 49.4784” N
19° 49′ 5.3653” E

Altitude

137.7 m

February the 8th 2021 – the centenary of the birth of Nexhmije Xhuglini (Hoxha)

Posted on 08/02/2021 by Michael

Nexhmije Hoxha

More on Albania ……

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Ukraine – what you’re not told

February the 8th 2021 – the centenary of the birth of Nexhmije Xhuglini (Hoxha)

On 7th April 1939 the Italian Fascists landed an invasion force in the port city of Durres and the Albanian people (led by those who considered themselves Communists) organised a demonstration in Tirana calling upon the self-crowned ‘King’ Zog to arm the people and resist the invaders. Nexhmije was one of those demonstrators.

In response to the invasion Zog ran away and spent the rest of the Second World War in luxury and safety in Britain while the country of his birth was occupied by first the Italian and then the German Fascists.

Barely out of her teens, on 8th November 1941, Nexhmije was one of the founding members of the Albanian Communist Party along with Qemal Stafa (who became leader of the Party’s Youth section – of which Nexhmije was also a member) and Enver Hoxha, later to become leader of the Party and the country.

Following the occupation Nexhmije was involved in the production and distribution of anti-fascist propaganda, mainly in the Tirana area, working in the youth section as well as being a women’s organiser.

For a couple of years there was no united resistance movement to the invaders – although various guerrilla groups made life as uncomfortable as possible for the fascists. There were also many demonstrations, in various parts of the country, where unarmed Albanians took to the streets protesting against the occupation, such as the demonstration of college students and teachers on 6th March 1942 in Gjirokaster.

On 16th September 1942 a conference was held in the farm of Myslym Peza, a few kilometres to the west or Tirana, called and organised by the young Communist Party, where the National Liberation Front was established, which, eventually was successful in clearing both the Italian Fascists and the German Nazis from the country.

Nexhmije Xhuglini

In her early twenties Nexhmije joined the Partisans fighting the invaders, as did many young women in the country at the time. The example of Liri Gero and the 68 girls from Fier being a prime example of this. Young Albanian women decided that if they wanted to achieve freedom then it had to be fought for by themselves rather than it being bestowed upon them by men at some time in the indeterminate future.

Final victory over the German Nazis was achieved with the liberation of Tirana on the 29th of November 1944. Albania being one of the few countries in the Second World War who liberated themselves without the aid of either the Soviet Red Army from the east or the forces of the British and Americans coming from the west.

Having fought and struggled together with Enver Hoxha in the partisan movement Nexhmije married him in 1945 and from then on was known as Nexhmije Hoxha.

After liberation she became chair of the Albanian Women’s Union and in the early 1950s she was elected to the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania (which the Albanian Communist Party had renamed itself after 1948).

In 1966, after the ten-year long struggle against revisionism within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and other parties in the International Communist Movement, Nexhmije became the head of the Marxist-Leninist Institute. This was a school for Party cadres and was an important, and crucial, development in the struggle within the Party to oppose revisionism and the re-introduction of capitalism within the country.

This was at the time which can be called Albania’s ‘Cultural Revolution’. This revolution was not as extensive as the very well-known Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, not least because the population of the country was much smaller and had, literally, many enemies right at their borders.

This was a struggle of ideas and this was the time when much of the anti-revisionist, revolutionary material produced in Albania started to be published, translated into various other languages and distributed worldwide.

In 1985 Enver Hoxha died. However, Nexhmije continued to play an important role within the Party and country. However, the increased isolation in a hostile world, which followed the counter-revolutionary coup in China after the death of Comrade Mao Tse-tung, meant that the economic situation became untenable and allowed reactionary forces to use the people’s discontent to rally against the Party and all those in the leadership.

Chaos and anarchy took control of Albania and in 1991 Nexhmije was put on trial as a scapegoat for those in power at that time to hide their inability to run the country – along capitalist lines and even with the support and backing of the capitalist and imperialist nations.

Nexhmije Hoxha 1991

She was accused of embezzlement of government funds and ludicrous stories were spread by the reactionaries in an effort to make her conviction more convincing.

Anyone who has visited Tirana and has seen the building which used to be the home and the office of Enver Hoxha and his family will realise that this was not a family which surrounded itself with luxury, as is the case and the norm in capitalist countries. It’s a modest, two storey building – which people can actually enter part of nowadays as one side of it is a cafe.

Enver Hoxha’s Residence and Office in Tirana

No evidence was ever presented of a luxurious lifestyle. If they were living in the sort of luxury it was claimed, then images of that would have been presented many years ago.

Even when Comrade Enver left Tirana to holiday in the mountains he stayed in, again, a very modest building in Peshkopia which is no more than a large, family house. People can actually stay in this building now as, for a number of years now the building has been used as a cheap hostel. This just goes to show that the claims of a luxurious lifestyle are hardly proven.

Summer House – Peshkopia

When Nexhmije died on 26th February 2020 she was really one of the last people who would have been around at the time to actively fight against the fascist invaders and then, after liberation, attempting to construct socialism in Albania. Her death was really a definitive break between the present era and the construction of socialism.

Although being a small country, in the 1960s and 70s Albania was able to construct a modern agricultural system based upon state farms and an industrial base which produced much that the country needed – following the concept of self-reliance.

All that capitalism has given to Albania in the last thirty years is the destruction of all those factories which produced so much. For Albanians the largest export the country has now is its people.

There are some who now consider the exploitation of the extensive mineral resources of Albania, although located in the more inaccessible parts of the country, is the way ‘forward’ but this will just turn it into a producer of prime materials. All the real profits from such a move would be gained by huge transnational companies and other foreign financial institutions.

Albania now has no real leadership which isn’t corrupt, inept and more intent on currying favour with the European Union than it is in working for the interests of the Albanian people.

Nexhmije, along with many other members of the Party of Labour of Albania, struggled – between 1944 and 1990 – to construct something which would mean true independence.

For the Albanian people now that independence is well and truly lost.

Tributes to Nexhmije – on the occasion of her death on 26th February 2020

Writings of Nexhmije Hoxha

Unfortunately there’s not a great deal published in England but what is available will be reproduced here.

Some fundamental questions of the Revolutionary Policy of the Party of Labour of Albania, 1977

More on Albania ……

Monument to the 15th Partisan Assault Brigade – Elbasan

Posted on 30/01/2021 by Michael

Monument to the 15th Partisan Assault Brigade – Elbasan

More on Albania ……

View of the world

Ukraine – what you’re not told

Monument to the 15th Partisan Assault Brigade – Elbasan

I must admit I have a little bit of a difficulty in working out exactly what the shape of this monument is supposed to represent. It’s like a huge belt or a ribbon. It starts at the back on the left-hand side and then comes back on itself in a big curve towards the front, where you have the main sculptural group, and then gently curves towards the back of the monument and finally straightening out slightly as it gets to the edge at the right-hand side – it’s a bit like a huge hook.

Not sure exactly the dimensions but it’s roughly 3 metres in width, which remains the same along its whole length, which I would estimate around about 15 metres in total.

There’s a sense of movement in this static, heavy concrete structure.

There’s a physically large clue on the left-hand side that it might be representing an ammunition belt because there are huge bullets on the extreme left. However, these cartridges seem to get absorbed by the lapidar and apart from the top of the casings disappear as they get close to the main sculptural group, only to re-emerge again at the edge of the flag.

The whole structure is about 2 metres above the ground – sometimes slightly less, sometimes a bit more – and the monument itself sits on two piles of rough rocks which are cemented together. This introduces the idea of the mountains, which is quite common in Albanian lapidars. On the left these rocks provide support directly underneath the sculptural group and then towards the right-hand side is another pile taking the weight.

The principal artistic element and the image which immediately draws your attention is the stone bas relief of four Partisans, grouped together above the left-hand support pile.

The individual which dominates the image is the male figure of the standard bearer who is on the left of the group – and slightly higher. We also see much more of him, virtually the whole of his body above the waist. He stands face on but his head is turned to his left so we get a right profile. His right arm is raised and his hand grips the flagpole near its top point whilst his left hand grips the pole at waist level. He is a Partisan in full uniform, wearing a cap with a star at the front and tied around his neck is what would have been a red scarf. On his left hip is a buttoned-up, leather holster, only the butt of the pistol visible.

The flag, the flag of the Communist Partisans, flutters in the wind that’s coming from the left as we look at the image. The very top of the flag is the only part of the tableau that breaks the confines of the concrete shape. This would have been a red flag and on it would have been a black, two-headed eagle (an image used by Skenderbeu in the 15th century, through the period of Socialist construction between 1944 and 1990 and to date). However, during the National Liberation Anti-Fascist War and the period of Socialism there would be a small gold star in the space just above where the two heads separate.

The stars were the target for the reactionary, fascist, nationalist forces that gained control of Albania in the early 1990s and many of them on lapidars throughout the country have been the subject of masking or obliteration. Although most of the monument in Elbasan remains in good condition the star on the flag has been erased. If you look carefully at the space above the eagle heads, almost to the top of the lapidar, it’s possible to see that someone has applied ‘fresh’ plaster to level out the area and erase the star. The parallel marks as evidence of this ‘alteration’ are to be found nowhere else on the lapidar.

Missing star

Two of the other Partisans, one female the other male, are similarly looking towards their left. This is where the action is and they are on the way to the battle. They are also in profile but there’s still a lot of information, even though we don’t see much of them.

The female Partisan is partially hidden by the standard bearer but she is also in uniform. She wears a cap and the edge of the star is evident on the front, her long hair flying behind her as she moves quickly forward. It also looks as if she has a red scarf around her neck. In virtually all the lapidars relating to warfare when a woman is depicted she is always armed (as in the mosaic on the facade of the National Historical Museum in Tirana) although the men aren’t. This lapidar is no different and the sharp end of her rifle is seen poking out behind the head of the fighter on the right of the group.

In front of her is a young male Partisan from the countryside. In the lapidars the distinction is often made about those Partisans from the countryside by depicting them in the traditional clothing of the mountain people. He’s not in a formal uniform but is dressed in a woollen vest, his shoulders and arms bare. Around his forehead is a sweat band, the knot tied at the back of his head. But his political allegiance is shown by the (red) scarf around his neck. At waist level he holds a sub-machine gun, his right finger on the trigger and his left hand holding the gun at the magazine. His posture is the same as the woman, moving forward towards the battle, his left knee bent to give the impression of the effort to get there quickly.

The fourth member of the quarter is not moving forward. He is an older man from the countryside, he is wearing a waistcoat and on his head a traditional cap (a qeleshe) but one on which is a star. All the people in this image are Communists. Additionally, it’s almost a trope when it comes to depicting older men from the mountains, he’s boasting a bushy moustache. He’s aiming his rifle and pointing downwards with his right finger on the trigger and holding the barrel of his rifle in his left hand. The Partisans, knowing the terrain, would always aim to select the location that was to their greater advantage and this representation of firing downwards appears in other lapidars such as the amazing star at Pishkash. And the mountain top design of the plinth supporting the monument adds to this impression of mountain warfare, he seems to be shooting out of the bas relief into a mountain environment – like someone walking out of a screen of a film.

Everything indicates that this is an ambush of a Nazi column in the mountains.

Where the right hand side of the flag ends we can see the top casings of three gigantic bullets. These then merge into a large, five pointed star which appears to be leaning away from the lapidar at the top but which merges into the concrete at the bottom. It’s more than half the width of the concrete ribbon, so more than a metre from point to point. The very tops of the casings of the cartridges then reappear briefly on the other side of the star until they finally disappear.

The concrete base on which the bas relief sits has curved slightly towards the back of the lapidar creating a partial circular space in the rear but then the panel straightens up and extends for about half the of the total length to the right.

The top left-hand quarter of this now unadorned panel has been plastered so that it provides a smooth face on which are painted (now) in red letters the following;

Partizanet e Brigadës XV S. duke luftuar me popullin kundër pushtuesit nazist gjerman e tradhëtarive çliruan më 11 nëntor 1944 qytetin e Elbasanit

which translates as

To the Partisans of the XVth Assault Brigade who, with the people, struggled against the German Nazis and traitors to Liberate the city of Elbasan on 11th November 1944

(This re-writing of the inscription in red paint must have been completed around the beginning of 2015 as the image in the Albanian Lapidar Survey (Volume 2, page 205) catalogue shows a different version.)

Towards the extreme right-hand edge of the monument there is something attached to the concrete – looking like a rectangular box. I’m not too sure whether this is something which was there originally and supporting another element of the story (but can’t really imagine what). There are signs, holes and general markings, that indicate that whatever was there was more extensive.

(One of the problems of there being so many lapidars to document is that I don’t always ‘see what’s there’ at the time of my visit. It’s only when time and magnification on the computer screen that some aspects become ‘visible’. If I ever get the opportunity to return to Elbasan I’ll try to remember to ask the pertinent questions.)

Generally, this lapidar is in a very good physical condition. There doesn’t appear to be any damage (apart from the mystery markings on the extreme right-hand side) and although it’s unlikely that the bas reliefs would have been painted in gold paint originally at least the painting has been done with an element of care and professionalism, as has the signwriting of the inscription.

Unfortunately, there’s no information available of the artist who created this lapidar – nor of the date of its inauguration. The features of the quartet are very clear, distinctive and detailed – you would recognise the models (I’m sure, if you saw them. This would seem to indicate one of the more accomplished sculptors and it’s very pleasing to see that the detail has remained intact despite the troubled times the country, and consequently the Socialist monuments, went through – especially in the 1990s.

Its present condition and the fact that has had a relatively recent ‘renovation’ and attention would seem to indicate that it has local support and protection. Whether that be from the local community or the municipality is impossible to say.

Nonetheless, this is an important lapidar in the country as it has attributes which I haven’t seen repeated elsewhere.

Location

In the large square created at the junction of Rruga Kadri Hoxha and Rruga Çerçiz Topulli. This is a bit of a transport hub and looks like it might be the site of a recently installed roundabout. It’s just over half a kilometre east of Elbasan Castle in the centre of the town.