PETRIT HALILAJ

For his exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, Halilaj is developing an opera in collaboration with the Kosovo Philharmonic, founded after the end of the Kosovo War in 2000, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The starting point is the legendary site of Syrigana, a three-thousand-year-old village near Halilaj’s hometown of Runik. Since 2016, it has been protected as an archaeological site of prehistory, late antiquity, and the Middle Ages. The elements of the opera will be reconfigured within a site-specific installation and activated through multiple performances.

Additionally, the exhibition will feature five other large-scale installations drawn from peiods in the artist’s work, offering an insight into his practice as a whole.

The Berlin-based artist Petrit Halilaj (born 1986) creates complex worlds that provide space for freedom, longing, intimacy, and identity. His art is deeply connected to the history of his home country, Kosovo, and the cultural and political tensions in the region. His works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Venice Biennale, and Tate St Ives.