Petrit Halilaj Explained

Petrit Halilaj
Birth Date:[1] [2]
Birth Place:Kostërc, District of Mitrovica, Kosovo
Nationality:Kosovar
Known For:sculpture, installation art

Petrit Halilaj (born 1986) is a Kosovar visual artist[3] [4] living and working among Germany, Kosovo, and Italy.[5] The name "Petrit" literally means "Falcon".[6] His work is based on documents, stories, and memories related to the history of Kosovo.[7] [8]

With his husband Alvaro Urbano, Halilaj is a joint tutor at Beaux-Arts de Paris, in Paris, France.[9] [10]

Early life

Born in SFR Yugoslavia, now Kosovo, Halilaj left the country at the age of 13 with his family during the Yugoslav Wars of 1991–2001.[11] At a refugee camp in Albania, a team of Italian psychologists, hoping to help the children process the trauma of the war, gave Halilaj felt-tip markers, with which he began to make drawings about his experiences.[10]

Settled in Italy, Halilaj studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan.[12]

Career

During the 6th Berlin Biennale in 2010, Halilaj exhibited a sculptural reconstruction of a house built by his parents, to replace the family home that was levelled by bombing during the 1998–1999 Kosovo war.[13] [14]

Halilaj represented the Republic of Kosovo at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.[15] [16]

Halilaj had several solo exhibitions, including one at the New Museum in New York in 2017–2018 and one at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2018–2019.

Halilaj created a large site-specific installation of giant sculptural flowers in 2020 for Madrid's Palacio de Cristal.[2] [17]

In 2020 Halilaj dropped out of the 58th, claiming that the, which organises it, would not recognize his Kosovar nationality.[18]

In July 2021, Halilaj and Urbano collaborated on an installation of "huge fabric flowers" at the Kosovo National Library to celebrate the 5th annual Kosovo Pride Week.[10] [19] According to the New York Times:

In October 2021, an exhibit opened at Tate St Ives of an installation by Halilaj inspired by his youthful marker drawings done in the refugee camp.

In the exhibit, visitors walk among hanging cutouts of images from the drawings blown up to a huge scale. Approached from the entrance, the cutouts show "a fantasy landscape of exotic birds and palm trees," but when the visitors turn back to the entrance, "they find that some of the suspended forms have been printed on the reverse with a more macabre selection of Halilaj’s doodles: soldiers, tanks, wailing figures, burning houses."[10]

Exhibitions

Collections

Awards

Halilaj received the Mario Merz Prize and a special mention of the jury at the 57th Venice Biennale, both in 2017.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Petrit Halilaj – Exhibition at Tate St Ives . Tate . 1975.
  2. Web site: Petrit Halilaj Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía . www.museoreinasofia.es . en.
  3. News: Larios. Pablo. In Focus: Petrit Halilaj. en. Frieze. 155. 2020-08-02. 0962-0672.
  4. Web site: Artist Petrit Halilaj Has Pulled Out of the Belgrade Biennial After Its Organizers Refused to Recognize His Nationality . artnet News . 28 July 2020.
  5. Web site: Mario Merz Prize. 2020-07-18. www.mariomerzprize.org.
  6. Web site: Petrit : Meaning and Origin of First Name . Ancestry .
  7. Web site: WIELS. Petrit Halilaj: Poisoned by men in need of some love Exhibitions WIELS. 2020-07-18. www.wiels.org. en.
  8. Web site: Petrit Halilaj: RU. 2020-07-18. www.newmuseum.org. en.
  9. Web site: Petrit Halilaj and Alvaro Urbano. 2021-08-02. Beaux-Arts de Paris. en.
  10. Web site: Wonders, and Horrors, Drawn From Boyhood in a War Zone . . 2021-10-27.
  11. News: Judah. Hettie. Artist Petrit Halilaj's Living Archaeology. en. Frieze. 201. 2020-08-03. 0962-0672.
  12. Web site: Cherubini . Laura . Petrit Halilaj . Flash Art . 18 February 2016.
  13. News: Petrit Halilaj "Space Shuttle in the Garden" at HangarBicocca, Milan . Mousse Magazine . 2 March 2016 . en.
  14. Web site: Berlin Biennale 2010: where art imitates real life Skye Sherwin . the Guardian . en . 15 June 2010.
  15. Web site: Curator Kathrin Rhomberg selected Petrit Halilaj to represent Kosovo at the 55th Venice Biennial 2013. . Biennial Foundation . 21 December 2012 . 30 January 2022.
  16. Web site: Hammer Projects: Petrit Halilaj Hammer Museum. 2020-07-18. hammer.ucla.edu. en.
  17. Web site: petrit halilaj turns madrid's palacio de cristal into nest of giant flowers . designboom architecture & design magazine . en . 24 July 2020.
  18. Web site: Kosovar Artist Withdraws from Belgrade Biennial over Country of Origin Dispute . Exit – Explaining Albania . 29 July 2020.
  19. Web site: Forget Me Not: What if a Journey. 2021-11-08.
  20. Web site: Petrit Halilaj. Shkrepëtima. 2020-08-02. Fondazione Merz. en.
  21. Web site: Pompidou . Musée national d’art moderne-Centre . Musée national d'art moderne – Centre Pompidou . Navigart.fr . fr . 7 July 2020.
  22. Web site: Collection . MEF.
  23. Web site: Petrit Halilaj, Do you realise there is a rainbow even if it's night!? (beige), 2017 . MCA . en.
  24. Web site: Petrit Halilaj – Do you realise there is a rainbow even if it's night!? . artmuseum.pl . en.
  25. Web site: Petrit Halilaj born 1986 . Tate.

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