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.