Following the dogs of Prishtina: landscape as living memorial

Abstract

This paper offers autoethnographic storytelling and analysis, considering what multispecies framing can offer post-war memorialisation discourse and practice. During 2019, I undertook initial scoping and consultation around the potential of a new museum or memorial site for post-war Kosova. The aim for this new site is to encourage reflection, peace building, and action around human rights. In Kosova there are multiple and conflicting memorialisation practices enacted by war veterans, politicians, mourning widows and mothers, activists, and survivors. These all take different forms from statues to protests, oral histories and curatorial interventions. As in all wars, the physical landscape of Kosova is the site of crime and resistance, mythologising and denial. Amidst the human memorial activity live the stray dogs of Prishtina. The dogs activated my attentiveness to the potential of a living landscape as a site of multispecies enquiry for rethinking processes of memorialisation and heritage-making.

Keywords:

• Kosova
• memorialisation
• war
• stray dogs
• multispecies
• arts methods
• landscape
• heritage
• storytelling

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the Bogujevci family and James Walmsley for welcoming me to Kosova and for our time together in 2019. My thanks to StrayCoco, Animal Rights Kosova, Gaia Kosova, and to Elizabeth Gowing from the Ideas Partnership Kosova for correspondence.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For information on Kosova and war statistics, impact, and transitional justice see sources: Dugolli and and Agimi (2008); Heir and Sheremeti (2021); Humanitarian Law Centre Kosova https://www.hlc-Kosova.org/en

2 See Saranda Bogujevci, 2014, Why I choose to relive my family’s massacre, TEDxPrishtina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTj78ZYm978

Piece on women in Kosova Parliament and Saranda Bogujevci’s career as an MP: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/world/europe/Kosova-women-parliament.html.

3 See Manchester Aid to Kosova: https://makonline.org/.

4 See documentation: http://cargocollective.com/jehona/BOGUJEVCI-Visual-History.

5 See also international NGO, Cultural Heritage without Borders, which works to connect heritage agendas with human rights issues: http://chwb.org/Kosova/.

6 Anna di Lellio, 2013, The Complexity of Kosova’s war memorials: https://Kosovatwopointzero.com/en/the-complexity-of-Kosovas-war-memorials/.

7 The group sits alongside other international mother-led movements. See Altinay and and Peto (2016) for extensive analysis on gender and war.

8 See related documentary film by Bajri and Dauti (2016), Ferdonija: https://vimeo.com/165343481.

9 Oral History Kosovo: https://oralhistorykosovo.org/.

10 FemArt: https://femart-ks.com/.

11 I have consulted with the leading animal organisations in Kosova, and none could offer any scholarship on animals or dogs.

12 These extremes are frequent media reportage in Kosova on the stray dogs (and across the Balkans). The main online multilingual journalism platforms relevant for Kosova: https://prishtinainsight.com/, https://Kosovatwopointzero.com/en/ & https://balkaninsight.com/.

13 Valmir Mehmetaj, 2017, A Street Dog’s Life, https://Kosovatwopointzero.com/en/street-dogs-life/.

14 For info on CNVR see https://www.straycoco.com/, United for Animals, Kosova: https://www.facebook.com/uforanimals/ & https://animalrights-rks.org/.

15 See docu-film Mondo Stray by Fiona Cole and Carlo Cesario, 2021, which interrogates the challenges of managing and living with stray dogs in Italy - issues comparable with Kosova: https://youtu.be/r1dQiqW81hg.

16 With thanks to activists from StrayCoco, Animal Rights Kosova, Gaia Kosova, and to Elizabeth Gowing from the Ideas Partnership Kosova, for correspondence on this issue of dogs in pre-war Kosova.

17 Reuters Archive Licensing, KOSOVA: Man's best friend becomes embroiled in debate over national identity (20th April 2008), https://reuters.screenocean.com/record/826978.

18 See also Puurunen, Hakanen, and Salonen (2020) on the negative impact on dog welfare of “pet” environments.

19 Building on the call in Haraway’s Manifesto (2003, p. 64).

Additional information

Funding

Funding support was provided from GCRF—HEFCE Partnership Develop Pump Priming, University of Manchester, 2019.

Notes on contributors

Jenna C. Ashton

Jenna C. Ashton is an artist, curator, and producer, and Lecturer in Heritage Studies at the Institute for Cultural Practices, University of Manchester. She is Research Lead for Creative and Civic Futures with the University’s research platform, Creative Manchester. Jenna’s interdisciplinary research contributes to community and civic practices for social and environmental change, and to evolving arts-based and mixed-methods research within heritage studies. Her work is often site-specific, highlighting experiences and knowledge(s) of place. Jenna leads the project, ‘Community Climate Resilience through Folk Pageantry’, AHRC, UK Climate Resilience Programme (2020–2023), and is a Co-I on ‘Creative Adaptive Solutions for Treescapes of Rivers (CASTOR)’, funded by NERC Future of UK Treescapes programme (2021–2024). Previously, she was a Co-I on project: ‘Green Infrastructure and the Health and Wellbeing Influences on an Ageing Population (GHIA)’, NERC, Valuing Nature Fund (2016–2020).