THE NAKED DOLL (October 27, 2011)

Early next month, Eni Nurkollari will have a big show in Priština, the capital of Kosovo. He showed me the photographs he had selected for the show, all of which come from his native Prizren. The pictures were taken in an area of the old town just under the fortress, which was recently abandoned by the Serbs who used to live there. Eni photographed many broken windows with wilted plants, collapsed doors, and crumbling walls with peeling paint. Without touching anything, he also photographed things abandoned on floors littered with debris. There is one with a woman’s black shoe and a crumpled red scarf. And there is another with a naked doll turned face down. I was taken aback by it at first, for the doll is rather realistic in spite of the dust. As Eni tells me, many of the houses are being torn down. His photographs are their last remains. When he asked me which photograph I would suggest for the poster of the exhibition, I quickly came up with the naked doll. “It would bring people to the show,” I winked and smiled nonchalantly.