Petrit Halilaj
PETRIT HALILAJ (b. 1986 in Kostërrc, Kosovo) understands exhibitions as a way to alter the course of personal and collective histories, creating complex worlds that claim space for freedom, desire, intimacy, and identity. His work is deeply connected to the recent history of his native country Kosovo and the consequences of cultural and political tensions in the region, which he often takes as a starting point for igniting countercurrent poetics for the future. Rooted in his biography, the projects encompass a variety of media, including sculpture, drawing, text, and performance. Often incorporating materials from Kosovo and manifesting as ambitious spatial installations, his work transposes personal relationships, places, and people into sculptural forms. Halilaj’s practice can be seen as a playful and, at times, irreverent attempt to resist oppressive politics and social norms towards an untamed celebration of all forms of connectedness and freedom. Kamel Mennour and Petrit Halilaj have been working together since 2014.
Halilaj held solo exhibitions at Fries Museum, Leeuwarden; Tate St Ives, UK; Palacio de Cristal, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; New Museum, New York; Fondazione Merz, Turin; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Paul Klee Zentrum, Bern; Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; Fondation d’Entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris; the National Gallery of Kosovo, Pristina; Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen; Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon; and WIELS, Brussels, among others. His work was shown in group exhibitions at the 15th Lyon Biennale; the Louisiana Museum in Denmark; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles; Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection, Venice; NEON, Mykonos, Greece; and the Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, among others.
He represented Kosovo at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. He received the Mario Merz Prize, and the special mention of the jury at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.
In 2021, Tate St Ives presented his solo exhibition Very volcanic over this green feather. In 2022 he took part in Manifesta 14 in Pristina, Kosovo with a large-scale public art work that is now on permanent display in the city. In 2023 together with Alvaro Urbano Petrit Halilaj presented the installation Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas at The Ocean Space in Venice, as well as a selection of Very volcanic over this green feather in the Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva, with the exhibition Petrit Halilaj (Unfinished Histories). In November 2023, the exhibition Petrit Halilaj: Runik will open at Tamayo Museum, Mexico. In December 2023, he will take part in the NGV Triennial in Melbourne, Australia.
Halilaj studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Art in Milan. He received the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) in 2018 and completed the MAK-Schindler Scholarship Program at the Mackey Apartments, Los Angeles, as well as residencies at the Villa Romana, Florence and Fürstenberg Contemporary, Heiligenberg. He is currently a professor at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris, France, together with his partner and frequent artistic collaborator, Álvaro Urbano.
He lives and works between Germany, Kosovo and Italy.