Displaced (2009)

Over 4000 IDP’s (Internal Displaced Persons) lived in collective centres in Serbia in 2009. Most of them fled Kosovo in 1999 after NATO intervention, afraid for reprisals by Albanians who would seek revenge after years of repression by Serbian paramilitary under the command of Slobodan Milosevic. What would you take with you if you leave your house indefinitely?

 

In 2004 I visited a refugee collective centre in Ripanj near Belgrade to photograph daily life. In 2009 I met the same people again in the same centre. In 5 years not much had changed. With my friend Igor Todorovic I visited a collective centre in Mataruška Banja. Based on the stories of people I tried to photograph the ruins of their past, the houses in Klinavac en Kijevo in Kosovo. What kind of memories do they have after years of life in a collective centre?