PETRIT HALILAJ

Living and working between Germany, Kosovo, and Italy, Halilaj’s practice is deeply intertwined with Kosovo’s recent history; he transforms personal experiences and residual artifacts from his homeland into complex visual worlds that challenge social norms and foreground transformation, belonging, and hope.

Early Life and Education

Born in the former Yugoslavia, now Kosovo, Halilaj was forced to flee at the age of 13 during the Yugoslav Wars, seeking refuge in Albania, where he began drawing to process trauma. He later studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, before moving to Berlin in 2008.

Petrit Halilaj Artworks and Career Developments

Halilaj’s multidisciplinary projects—spanning sculpture, installation, poetry, and performance—frequently feature everyday and salvaged materials from Kosovo, such as wood, earth, and domestic remnants, reinvented as ambitious participatory installations. Recurring motifs include birds, nests, and family homes, referencing both personal trauma and broader resilience. His works create poetic environments that explore loss, the reimagining of home, and the persistence of memory, often inviting audiences to participate in collective storytelling.

Halilaj’s work is also noted for its intersections with LGBTQ+ advocacy, most notably in public installations celebrating love and identity, such as his 2021 large-scale flower installation at the Kosovo National Library for Pride Week. He often collaborates with his partner, artist Alvaro Urbano, while jointly teaching at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Major Exhibitions

Halilaj’s projects have been showcased at prestigious international institutions. Notable exhibitions include:

• Back to the Future, Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, Kosovo (2009).
• 6th Berlin Biennale (2010): Featured a sculptural reconstruction of his family home, destroyed in the Kosovo war.
• Represented Kosovo Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale (2013).
• RU, New Museum, New York (2017–2018).
• Hammer Projects: Petrit Halilaj, Hammer Museum, LA (2018–2019).
• To a raven and hurricanes..., Palacio de Cristal, Madrid (2020): A monumental site-specific installation of giant sculptural flowers.
• Very volcanic over this green feather, Tate St Ives, Cornwall (2021): Immersive cut-out installations based on marker drawings from the refugee camp.
• Abetare, Roof Garden Commission, Metropolitan Museum, New York (2024): Monumental public artwork channeling childhood memory.
• Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Sea, MACBA, Barcelona (2024), with Álvaro Urbano.
• An Opera Out of Time, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2025).
• Syrigana: An Opera in Five Acts, Kosovo Philharmonic (2025).

Awards and Accolades

• Special Mention, 57th Venice Biennale (2017)
• Mario Merz Prize (2017), resulting in a major commission at Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern and Fondazione Merz, Turin (2018)
• Kunstpreis Berlin, Akademie der Künste (2023)
• Nasher Prize for Sculpture (2025, youngest recipient)

Leadership, Advocacy, and Teaching

Halilaj co-founded the Hajde! Foundation in 2014 to support Kosovar artists. He is an active member of Cologne‘s Akademie der Künste der Welt and shares an influential professorship at Beaux-Arts de Paris with Alvaro Urbano.

Representation

Halilaj is represented by kurimanzutto (New York/Mexico City), kamel mennour (Paris), and ChertLüdde (Berlin).

Petrit Halilaj FAQs

Ocula | 2025