Trina Hashani
Who am i?
I investigate the land bears visible scars of political and economic decisions from abandoned villages to areas impacted by industrial activity and destructive practice. The power plant of Kosovo A & B, for example, has long affected nearby homes and environments through pollution and contamination, shaping how communities live and breathe. For many families, including my own, these ecological conditions are not abstract but felt daily in air, soil, and water. Growing up in the diaspora, I carry memories of these physical landscapes and stories passed down through generations, experiences that root my sense of ecology in embodied, in reflecting in my idea of exploring neglected environments and the oral histories of communities affected by environmental destruction.My work includes the life of more-than-human , plants reclaiming abandoned walls, moss growing on bricks, insects inhabiting forgotten spaces, and the slow process of natural regeneration that occurs when human control recedes. These living processes, influenced by non-living actants such as wind, soil chemistry, and industrial remnants, form an ecological chorus that speaks of resilience and entanglement.Exploring memory, identity, and place, acknowledging that landscapes are not empty backgrounds but dynamic systems shaped by history, labour, and life beyond human intention. Ecology, then, is a multi-layered experience: environmental, social, political, and emotional framework for understanding how we belong to the world and how the world belongs to us
Research
The spark of my research into the changing environment began with a photo of my mother and her side of the family from their home in Hade, taken in the 1970s by a family member. Through this research, I capture the environmental changes occurring there, drawing on past archives, oral histories, and present-day documentation to trace the gradual disappearance of her home. This investigation sheds light on the destructive practices impacting communities surrounding the mines and Kosovo A & B power plant.I am actively engaged in ongoing research to highlight neglected places, participating in workshops focused on sustainable building practices, community engagement in agriculture, and conducting interviews with those living closest to these changes.As part of this project, I conducted interviews with individuals about their living situation's, particularly those affected by negative practices or rapid changes within their communities, and how these shifts had shaped their lives over the years. Through these conversations, locals expressed their distress and beliefs through their own stories. Drawing on these oral histories, I created a video documenting the environmental changes, focusing on the village Hade and town Obliq.
This image, and the experience of returning to Hade and witnessing its changes firsthand, expanded my thinking to other locations and drove me to dig deeper into the landscape, exploring what is held within its memory, and what is shaped by both care and neglect.