For his first solo show in the UK – at Tate St Ives from 16 October–16 January 2022 – Petrit Halilaj presents an installation that recreates a series of felt-tip drawings he made aged 13 at the Kukës II refugee camp in Albania, after his family were displaced by the Kosovo War. Halilaj was encouraged to draw at the camp by the Italian psychologist Giacomo ‘Angelo’ Poli, who remains a close friend; the exhibition has been informed by conversations between the two, and includes materials from both of their wartime archives. The installation takes the form of a sculptural environment, comprising scaled-up elements of the artist’s childhood drawings, from representations of the atrocities he witnessed to images of birds and fantastical beasts. Find out more from the Tate St Ives website.
Fantasy Landscape (1999), Petrit Halilaj. Courtesy the artist and Giacomo Poli
Installation view of ‘Petrit Halilaj: To a raven and hurricanes that from unknown places bring back smells of humans in love’, Palacio de Cristal, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2020. Photo: Imagen Subliminal; courtesy of the artist, ChertLüdde, Berlin, kamel mennour, London/Paris
Doyourealisethere is a rainbow even if it’s night!? (greyand warm yellow) (2017), Petrit Halilaj. Courtesy the Artist, ChertLüdde, Berlin andkamelmennour, Paris/London