They Say You Can’t Hold Two Watermelons In One Hand

Selmani’s artwork “They Say You Can’t Hold Two Watermelons In One Hand” relate to an old Albanian saying that he brought to life, a proverb, referring to the inability to gain two things at the same time, or being here and there simultaneously.
The photo was shot between the Albania - Kosovo border, on a bridge that separates the two — in a no man’s land. The artist is portrayed in an attempt to hold the fruits and unstably maintain his delicate balance.

A poignant image of the people of Kosovo. In between times, between regimes, between political transition and identity transition, between the past and the promised future.

With this work the young artist brings to light strikingly the identity struggle that his generation had to deal with, encouraged by the international community to work on branding Kosovars or Kosovans as a new national identity, a political and conceptual strategy to mitigate possible tensions. But as Selamni says “you can only hold the two watermelons in one hand for so long because it's not natural".