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Jana Kukaj, the artisan woman who preserves the tradition in the Zadrima area

2024-03-31 20:30:56Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Jana Kukaj, the artisan woman who preserves the tradition in the Zadrima area
Pottery works

In Albania, women in rural areas are increasingly trying to revive the traditions of the past. Jana Kukaj in the area of ​​Zadrima in Lezhë, with her works in ceramics, is bringing back the cultural and artistic heritage of the province. In two decades she has managed to build a safe bed for herself and her family, based on the best of her ancestors.

Making art with clay. With her mind, heart and hands, Jana Kukaj, in the village of Krajen in the city of Lezha, has built what she calls her temple of passion, a ceramic workshop.

Raised in the heart of the Zadrima area, she passes on all the precious wealth that family tradition has offered her, through her grandmother and mother. In two decades, Jana has traversed a path of emotions and feelings, very special. The axis of its operation is the desire for what it does.

"It's enough to have the passion and you grow yourself gradually. I grew up wearing my grandmother-in-law's clothes. I am surrounded by the tradition of the loom. It is very simple to take the drawings of the works and put them on ceramics", says Jana Kukaj, artisan.

Once a young girl by the side of her husband, she started working in ceramics as a game. "Mud gives you the opportunity to destroy what you are building, and start again from the beginning" - says Jana. And its beginnings have many such moments.

"One day when I was creating some decorations on a vase, my husband was not at home and I was waiting for him very anxiously. Without knowing the importance of the effort he had made to realize that vase, I, while making cutting designs, unwittingly cut it more than necessary and it completely collapsed and fell. When he comes home I was anxious and I tell him that he is broken. It's okay that it's broken - he tells me. Because clay has this. If it doesn't break, it doesn't create", continues Jana Kukaj.

Does Jana have a plan of what she will accomplish when she is faced with a shapeless ball of clay. Her art accepts none of that.

"I just start it. There have been many times when I started with the idea of ​​doing something and it turned out to be something completely different. I'm busy, I want to make a vase. I accidentally drop a glass. When you enter the ceramics environment, there is no more room for studies, for plans, for ideas. The relationship between the hand and the clay is indescribable, it is very healing for both the brain and the soul", says Jana Kukaj.

Jana treats her works like some breathing creatures. He treats them that way from the moment he creates them, and often has a hard time when he finally has to part with them, when someone wants to buy them.

"I don't know, this feeling happens to everyone, when you have a passion for something, you don't want to sell it at all. You will have them there to look at because it is something that was created by you, not only from time and work, but from emotion, from what you feel", says Jana Kukaj.

Everyone enters Jana's workshop, tries the magic of clay. She makes it look easy, but it's not.

"Being in the ceramics environment, I can assure you that you cannot break away. It is a craft that makes you for yourself. You can never get enough of learning. It is a craft like a world without end", continues Jana Kukaj.

One of the most inspiring figures for Jana is the Italian missionary Dom Antiono Sciarra, who passed away 10 years ago. He served in the Diocese of Sapa and was a strong supporter of women and girls in the area, as well as one of the most influential people after the 1990s. And he had found very efficient ways to do so.

"Everyone was waiting for help to get things ready. Instead of bringing bags of food or clothing, he opened the trunk and took out picks and shovels, to give you an idea to working people that if you don't work, you don't become anybody. This was the idea of ​​starting a workshop of the most different types, in looms, ceramics, for soap production and to activate people", says Jana Kukaj.

In the workshop where Jana's works stand one after the other, there is a mother's spirit that is transmitted to her son Alban. He studies at the University of Arts in Tirana for sculpture and on weekends he returns to the nest where his art was conceived.

"For me, my grandmother is the person I discuss a lot. And through a sculpture, I have not only made something that resembles him, but I also wanted to present those feelings and emotions that I have when I talk to him", says Alban Kukaj, a student, commenting on a sculpture.

In order to dress the clay in colors, Janas also likes to attend painting courses. The motifs are based on the clothing of the Zadrima area. But recently she is giving her profession a new dimension, that of restoration. Old objects like chests, faded and alienated by time into a lifeless piece of wood, are repainted with Jana's brush.

"They have their own special details. In its center is a temple that is the pillar of the house, the man. The woman inside him. The vases on the side are the boys and the flowers symbolize the girls. This is the beauty and the love that has been added to me for this work because they have a lot of meaning that intrigues you to study and work on it", continues Jana Kukaj, commenting on the motifs of a chest.

Surrounded by this art, Jana Kukaj carries forward the tradition with great dedication. She repeated over and over the word passion and desire the two strong pillars she relies on to make her way safe.

"I didn't think I would get here. But you have to walk, keep walking forward. The road itself brings you to the top", says Jana Kukaj.

Today he is walking on this path, which leads him to a breath of art and unparalleled peace./VOA


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