In 1998, when Petrit Halilaj was 11, Serbian troops swept through his native Kosovo and forced him and his family to flee into nearby Albania. Destruction, displacement and loss came to define his youth, and eventually shaped his career as an artist. Now one of the foremost cultural figures to have emerged from his young homeland, he has explored these themes with poignant urgency. At the 2010 Berlin Biennale, he reconstructed the scaffolding of his family home, burned down in the village of Kostërc during the war, and later rebuilt in the capital city of Pristina; and let loose a flock of live chickens as symbols of rural life and recovered freedom. He subsequently meditated on migration and integration through large-scale recreations of the jewellery that his mother had buried in the soil as they prepared to escape, and by filling an Art Basel booth in 2011 with the same soil.
Contemplating wider themes of nationhood, he created a giant bird’s nest out of Kosovan soil and twigs for the country’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale two years later and then resurrected specimens from the vanished Natural History Museum of Pristina for a solo show at the Wiels Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels. Adding to this more recent projects such as Ru, 2017, inspired by Neolithic artefacts from the town of Runik that wound up in Serbian hands; and Shkrepëtima, 2018, a performance presenting the collective memories of Runik’s citizens; and Halilaj’s ability to give widely resonant form to his personal histories becomes abundantly clear.
This story is from the November 2021 edition of Wallpaper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 2021 edition of Wallpaper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
A Kind of Magic
Demna's breathtaking couture collection takes centre stage at Balenciaga's newly renovated couture salons in Paris
Building Site
Sun Tower, China, by Open Architecture
Circular Approach
Repurpose clothing initiative, by Oliver Spencer
CITY
Seoul's unique mix of culture, art and style goes global, thanks to an unstoppable new wave of dynamic creatives
RESTORATION KINGS
Laplace for Hauser & Wirth Paris
CARDBOARD CUTOUTS
'Box' furniture, by Max Lamb, for Gallery Fumi
URBAN BOLTHOLE
Pacaembu House, Brazil, by Arthur Casas
SURREALIST DREAMS
Weird and wonderful works to wake up to
CROWNING GLORY
15-step scalp treatment, by Eco Jardin by Park Jun
WEARABLE ART
Jewellery collection, by Lynda Benglis, for Loewe