Reuters: The artist who painted Kurt and Vuchy kissing

As Kosovo and Serbia's leader meet on Monday to negotiate a peace agreement, a young artist from Pristina will likely continue to receive threats for a painting describing leaders of the two countries kissing.

Ermira Murati's painting, which is 3m long, features Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurtin and Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq embraced, kissing each other on closed lips, broadcast the clan.

“I see their relationship as an acting show... and both peoples of Kosovo and Serbia, we are looking at the same show”, Murati told Reuters, presenting her painting, which shows both men in black suits in front of a bright orange background.

No matter how deep the chaotic relationship between Kosovo and Serbia, I think our youth wants peace more than anything else.

Kurti and Vuciq will meet in Brussels on Monday, where they are expected to approve a Western-backed agreement on normalising relations and ending hostilities.

If they fail to reach an agreement, they will face international isolation and less financial assistance from the European Union and the United States.

“History records kisses from moments of pain and goodbye. But history also reminds us of the kisses of brotherhood and even betrayal. Will that be one of them?”, Murati writes on her accounts on social networks as she discovered her painting on February 17th, when Kosovo celebrated the 15th anniversary of independence from Serbia.

Thousands on social networks posted comments on the painting of Murat, where most used hate speech and some even threatened death.

“You deserve a bullet,” said a commentator.

Murati, born a year after the end of the war in 1999, is known for breaking taboos with her artistic work.

It received threats last year when it realised a similar painting showing two men dressed in Albanian folk costumes kissing on their lips as a gesture of support for the LGBTI community in Kosovo, where conservative society is still reluctant to accept homosexuals.

Murati said the new painting had a purely political message and that it was used to receiving threats.

This doesn't bother me. As they respond as they do, I realize that the message has gone to the right place. This is creating a debate”.