Performative installation:
Waltraud P. Indrist
Performance: Waltraud P. Indrist
Poem: Shtëpia që meremetohet / Mending the House, Jusuf Gërvalla (in: »Bekimi i nënës / A Mother’s Blessing«, transl. by Jack Hirschman and Idlir Azizaj, 2018)
Location: Maize field,
Strellc/Kosovo, July 2022

Performance festival:
Unter dem Pflug der Zeit / Nën braza të kohës – 82 GËRVALLA 22.

A co-production by transit, Austria and stralli, Kosovo.

Unter dem Pflug der Zeit / Nën braza të kohës is a performance festival series curated by Katarina Csanyiova, Andreas Pronegg and Alban Beqiraj.

Metaphorically opening a window in the house (»kulla« in Shqip) you have been growing up is like measuring the cultural existence you are born in to.

»Tani vetëm pluhuri del prej dritareve dhe ftohtësia.
Tjegullat që lëshonin shiun në vjeshte janë ndërruar,
një tra i laguar e i nxirë me merimanga mbuluar
dhe era e mykut me krimbat në dysheme, të zgjuar.
Në kthinën tjetër kanë mbetur truq të gjitha arkat,
mbi resho të përlyer zihet kafia mengadalë,
nga parandjenja e rrëzimit minjtë prej vrimash kanë dalë.
Tash goditen me sy e shpagë lartësitë...
Nga dritaret e vogla do të lihet më shumë hapësirë,
pastaj për cdo skutë do të ketë më shumë dritë,
do t’i lihet rrugë diellit më shpesh të vijë për drekë,
në dysheme, tek rrinë këmbët e gjyshes, s’do të ketë më lagështi.
shkallët tash do të shpien drejt në kopshtin e blertë,
gjatë rrugës për në giumë s’do të zërë më thua gjyshi...«

»Now only dust and coldness come from the windows.
They’ve replaced the roof-tiles where autumn rain leaked down;
the roof-beam’s damp and bleak, covered by spider webs
and the smell of mold; down on the floor worms writhe.
Other trunks are heaped against the next gable
while coffee’s boiling slowly on the small stained cooktop.
Sensing a possible collapse, the rats have fled outside.
Carefully we’ll mend the higher part of the wall with a trowel...
We’ll enlarge the small window-frames,
and the light will better illuminate the nooks;
there’ll be a wider path for the sun to enter in at lunchtime,
and there’ll be no more damp on the floor
where grandma poses her feet. And the stairs
will lead me directly into the green garden
and grandpa won’t stumble again on his way to bed...«

[»Shtëpia që meremetohet / Mending the House« by the dissident, musicican, poet and author Jusuf Gërvalla (1945–82).]

The performative installation »Jusuf Gërvalla’s Window« is opening a window to Gërvalla’s poem »Shtëpia që meremetohet / Mending the House« by mirroring the landscape the poet was so well acquainted with. 
Jusuf Gërvalla’s poem mirrors his early growing up in this landscape and in a typical local resident typology – called »kulla« in Shqip [note: Albanian]. The measurements of the kulla Jusuf Gërvalla grew up were meticulously surveyd and cut out of the maize field. Fully to be seen from the bird’s eye view.
Photography: Waltraud P. Indrist. Videostills: Gent Ademaj, Strellc/Kosovo, 2022.

82 Gërvalla 22 – Festival Reel. Camera: Daniel Dlouhy, Gabriel Tempea, Gent Ademaj, Strellc/Kosovo, 2022.

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