No walls: Kosovo independence monument gets topical redesign

Pristina’s NEWBORN independence monument gets an annual redesign to mark Kosovo’s independence day on 17 February. This year the changes to the monument are especially poignant — the monument has been adapted to incorporate the phrase “No Walls”.

The addition of “No Walls” to the monument, ordinarily made up of large individual letters spelling out NEWBORN, is particularly apt in the wake of recent developments both in Kosovo and abroad. These include US President Donald Trump’s assurance that he intends to build a US-Mexico border wall, and the recent pulling down of a wall dividing the Serb-dominated north and largely Albanian-populated southern part of Mitrovica, a town in northern Kosovo.

“In a world where walls are being built every day, and freedom of movement is becoming ever more limited by narrow minds, while a wall here continuously harms Kosovo’s sovereignty, NEWBORN wants to bring those walls down, for the sake of humanity,” said the creator of NEWBORN, Fisnik Ismajli, who also serves as an MP for the opposition Vetevendosje party.

Source: Balkan Insight