Almost sovereign: Kosovo's NEWBORN sculpture and the indeterminacy of the state

Abstract

AbstractIn 2008, a giant yellow sculpture of the word ‘NEWBORN’ was built to celebrate Kosovo's independence. Every year, the designer repaints it to express a new theme, but his messaging is often challenged by anonymous pranks and other interventions. Creating uncertainty over NEWBORN's legitimacy and who has the right to repaint it, these contestations are significant because they echo the uncertainty over the Kosovo state, whose sovereignty is also in dispute. By analysing the relationship between the politics of the sculpture and the politics of the state, the article argues that the disruptions to NEWBORN not only reflect but also reconstitute Kosovo's sovereignty. Although it is generally viewed as the capacity of a state to self‐govern, by conceptualising sovereignty as recognition, authority and agency, the article demonstrates how citizens' agency transcends the state and the basis of its rule.