Blurred Legalities: Project the Boundaries of Necessity and Law
Session
Art and Digital Media
Description
In Blurred Legalities, I continue my exploration into the shifting dynamics of urban life and post-war transformation, following my earlier project Above Everyone. This new series extends my ongoing interest in how people shape and adapt their environments under conditions of scarcity, uncertainty, and resilience. Through the delicate medium of watercolor, I depict unauthorized “penthouses” and hybrid rooftop structures that have emerged in Kosovo’s cities as responses to post-war needs and ambiguous legal frameworks For me, these structures represent more than architectural improvisations, they are markers of a society negotiating its own definitions of legality, belonging, and survival. Their improvised forms and irregular geometries reveal how necessity often blurs the lines between what is permitted and what is possible. Using watercolor allows me to translate these blurred realities into soft transitions of tone and texture, mirroring the fragile coexistence of formality and informality in the urban landscape. The transparency of the medium echoes the transparency, and at times opacity, of the laws and conditions that shape such spaces. While Above Everyone explored the social and symbolic implications of elevation and aspiration, Blurred Legalities moves toward the in-between where legality and illegality, permanence and transience, coexist. I am drawn to façades that have aged unevenly, to rooftops that appear both temporary and enduring. In these visual contradictions, I find a quiet reflection of the ways people continuously rebuild their lives and cities after conflict. Through this work, I wish to question how legality is defined and who has the authority to define it. By framing these informal architectural gestures within a painterly language, I aim to open a dialogue about the moral, social, and aesthetic dimensions of reconstruction. The paintings are not simply documents of urban improvisation but meditations on resilience, resourcefulness, and the ethics of making space in the aftermath of disruption. In Blurred Legalities, I try to capture a landscape where rules are flexible, boundaries are porous, and beauty emerges from necessity—a cityscape painted not only with water and pigment, but with the traces of human persistence.
Keywords:
Blurred Legalities, Above Everyone, Post-war urban transformation, Informal architecture, Unauthorized penthouses, Legality and necessity, Urban development, Aesthetics of informality, Post-conflict reconstruction, Architectural improvisation
Proceedings Editor
Edmond Hajrizi
ISBN
978-9951-982-41-2
Location
UBT Kampus, Lipjan
Start Date
25-10-2025 9:00 AM
End Date
26-10-2025 6:00 PM
DOI
10.33107/ubt-ic.2025.31
Recommended Citation
Muja, Alban, "Blurred Legalities: Project the Boundaries of Necessity and Law" (2025). UBT International Conference. 3.
https://knowledgecenter.ubt-uni.net/conference/2025UBTIC/ADM/3
Blurred Legalities: Project the Boundaries of Necessity and Law
UBT Kampus, Lipjan
In Blurred Legalities, I continue my exploration into the shifting dynamics of urban life and post-war transformation, following my earlier project Above Everyone. This new series extends my ongoing interest in how people shape and adapt their environments under conditions of scarcity, uncertainty, and resilience. Through the delicate medium of watercolor, I depict unauthorized “penthouses” and hybrid rooftop structures that have emerged in Kosovo’s cities as responses to post-war needs and ambiguous legal frameworks For me, these structures represent more than architectural improvisations, they are markers of a society negotiating its own definitions of legality, belonging, and survival. Their improvised forms and irregular geometries reveal how necessity often blurs the lines between what is permitted and what is possible. Using watercolor allows me to translate these blurred realities into soft transitions of tone and texture, mirroring the fragile coexistence of formality and informality in the urban landscape. The transparency of the medium echoes the transparency, and at times opacity, of the laws and conditions that shape such spaces. While Above Everyone explored the social and symbolic implications of elevation and aspiration, Blurred Legalities moves toward the in-between where legality and illegality, permanence and transience, coexist. I am drawn to façades that have aged unevenly, to rooftops that appear both temporary and enduring. In these visual contradictions, I find a quiet reflection of the ways people continuously rebuild their lives and cities after conflict. Through this work, I wish to question how legality is defined and who has the authority to define it. By framing these informal architectural gestures within a painterly language, I aim to open a dialogue about the moral, social, and aesthetic dimensions of reconstruction. The paintings are not simply documents of urban improvisation but meditations on resilience, resourcefulness, and the ethics of making space in the aftermath of disruption. In Blurred Legalities, I try to capture a landscape where rules are flexible, boundaries are porous, and beauty emerges from necessity—a cityscape painted not only with water and pigment, but with the traces of human persistence.