Petrit Halilaj

Kostërrc, 2011
Soil, grass, metal container, 230 x 600 x 400 cm
Installation view “Statements”, Art Basel 2011, with Chert, Berlin

Bourgeois Hen, 2009
drawing on paper

The places I’m looking for, my dear, are utopian places, they are boring and I don’t know how to make them real, 2010
Wood, iron, various materials, 13 x 11 x 8 meter circa
Installation view 6th Berlin Biennial for contemporary art, Berlin, June 2010

They are Lucky to be Bourgeois Hens II, 2009
Wood, paint, electricity, chickens, 550 x 150 cm circa
Installation view, solo exhibition at Contemporary Art Center, Pristhina

The cabin where he spent the night was so small that anyone who wasn’t a child or a dwarf couldn’t lie down full-length inside it, 2011
Wood, straw, 500 cm ø 300 cm
Installation view “Struktur & Organismus”, Muhldorf in der Wachau, 2011
photo: eSeL.at

Astronauts saw my work and started laughing, 2011
Wood, strings, metal, soil, beans, 280 cm ø 180 cm
Installation view from “Based in Berlin”, Berlin, 2011
Photo: AMIN AKTHAR

Astronauts saw my work and started laughing, 2011
Color print photograph, 30 x 50 cm

Astronauts saw my work and started laughing, 2011
Wood, strings, metal, soil, beans, 280 cm ø 180 cm

Can we do something together, just this and then free forever, 2011
Metal, wood, glass, color pigment, 200 x 90 x 60 cm
Installation view “Petrit Halilaj”, solo exhibition at Kunstraum Innsbruck, 2011

Because it is for you my Dear, and the Sky doesn´t see you and we can fall. Yes I am doing it for you, to see if you are free too, 2011
Site specific installation, iron, plastic, 12 painted panels, wood, motor

all images courtesy the artist and Chert, Berlin

Ten things you need to know about PETRIT HALILAJ:

  1. he was born in Kostërrc, Skenderaj-Kosovo, in 1986
  2. at the age of thirteen, he fled with his family to Albania
  3. later he was able to study art at the Brera Academy in Milan
  4. he gained the art world’s attention thanks to the project They Are Lucky to Be Bourgeois Hens, 2008 (three versions of which were shown in Istanbul, Berlin and Pristina), his participation in the Berlinbiennale with house and chickens in 2010, as well as his installation Kostërrc at Art Basel 42 in 2011
  5. his practice  – sculptures, installations, pen or ink drawings – is built around his own biography and life situation
  6. and raises questions as to everyday codes and conventions, to identity and integration or to unwritten boundary lines between cultures and social groups
  7. he uses simple materials such as earth and wooden slats, but also live chickens and found objects from the archives of vanished museums in Kosovo, to construct/reconstruct places or objects dedicated to his memories, his family or other people close to him
  8. the recollection only has meaning as long as it remains the same as reality, and it only remains the same as reality as long as reality remains the same as itself. In a glass case, in a new nestPETRIT HALILAJ for Domus, November 2009
  9. today, he lives and works between Pristina, Bozzolo (Mantova) and Berlin
  10. and good news: he will create a new project for the Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen (Switzerland) on view from 21st July to 23rd September, 2012


4 commentaires pour “Petrit Halilaj”

  1. […] account of his own experiences in life*, PETRIT constructs fragmentary narratives using simple materials such as earth but also live […]

  2. Je suis impatient de voir l’expo au Wiels à Bruxelles

  3. touching works. love them so much!

  4. […] mag er een audiofragment gehoord worden, namelijk een fragment van Petrit Halilaj (uit het boek met dezelfde titel): The places I’m looking for, my dear, are utopian places, they […]