When I began designing the invitation for 25 @ 25, I knew I did not want to create something that only looked backward in pain. The war in Kosova in 1999 is a truth we carry, and one that can never be erased, but I did not want our story to continue to be told only through loss. We are more than what was done to us. We are: memory, survival, beauty, creativity, and continuation.

That is why I chose to root this design in art.

The Artistè Foundation is deeply committed to creating space for women’s voices, women’s stories, and women’s creative expression. So, I wanted the invitation itself to reflect that spirit. I returned to something deeply familiar in our culture: punimet me grep a.k.a. crochet work, crafted by the hands of Albanian women across generations. These pieces are delicate, but never weak. They are patient, intricate, intentional. They carry care, tradition, and identity. In many homes, such handmade work has long held a place of honour, often prepared with love as part of a woman’s pajë, passed down as both art and memory.

From there, the vision became clear: Kosova, woven in crochet.

I shaped the piece in the form of our homeland because crochet itself felt like a metaphor for who we are. Every stitch is connected to another. Every detail depends on the next. On its own, one thread is fragile; together, it becomes something whole, something enduring, something beautiful. That is how I see Kosova. That is how I see our people.

Each person, each sacrifice, each story, each contribution has been woven into the country we know today. Those who remained. Those who were forced to leave. Those who rebuilt from afar. Those in the diaspora who carried Kosova in their language, in their homes, in their children, and in their hearts. We are all interwoven. Without each other, Kosova would not be what it is.

Through an art form historically carried by women’s hands, I wanted to give shape to our stories as refugees and as Kosovar-Albanians. I wanted to show that our identity is not divided into separate strands, but woven into something whole. We do not simply inherit our story but we continue making it. And we make it stronger together.

The blue of the design was chosen intentionally, both as a tribute to the flag of Kosova and in harmony with The Artistè Foundation’s visual identity. Within the crocheted map, I included cultural and traditional motifs that speak to the richness of who we are: the double-headed eagle, a powerful symbol of Albanian identity; the çifteli, one of our beloved traditional instruments; and floral elements that evoke the beauty, softness, and life woven into our heritage. These details were not added as decoration alone, but as quiet declarations of memory and pride.

So, this invitation was never meant to be just an invitation.

It was meant to be a glance into Kosova. A small visual language of who we are. A reminder that even after displacement, our culture did not disappear. It adapted, survived, and continued to create. It lived in women’s hands, in song, in symbols, in thread, in performance, in community, and in the stories we still tell.

This design is my way of saying: we are still here.

We are still creating.

We are still woven together.

We are Kosova.