ASTRONAUTS SAW MY WORK AND STARTED LAUGHING Petrit Halilaj
Curators Erti Lutaj, Fani Zguro Tirana Art Center in collaboration with The National Gallery of Arts Tirana From December 22, 2011 until February 1, 2012
Tirana Art Center presents Petrit Halilaj’s “Astronauts Saw My Work and Started Laughing” with the support of The National Gallery of Arts in Tirana. The work will be inaugurated at the same day of the International Onufri Prize, this year curated by Alban Hajdinaj, himself an artist and curator, who is also part of the Artistic Research and Education Unit at the National Gallery of Arts. “Astronauts Saw My Work and Started Laughing” consists seemingly benign haystacks situated in the rolling countryside. After closer inspection, however, these haystacks revealed themselves as small huts with interiors just large enough for two people to lay together in solitude. The beans, planted around the base of the structure, refer not only to the ‘magic’ beans from the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale (and all the promises of wealth and adventure they entail), but also provide a metaphor for the growth of a love, for which the hut was built.
PETRIT HALILAJ
Born in 1986 in Kostërrc. Lives and works between Kosovo, Mantova and Berlin.
Selected Solo Exhibitions 2012: “Petrit Halilaj”, Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen (upcoming) 2011: “Petrit Halilaj”, curated by Veit Loers, Kunstraum Innsbruck (Austria) 2009: “Back to the Future”, curated by Albert Heta, Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina (Kosovo)Selected
Group Exhibitions 2011: “Ostalgia”, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, New Museum New York (USA) 2010: “6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art”, curated by Kathrin Rhomberg, Berlin (Germany) 2009: “Melancholy of Compassion”, curated by Melih Gorgun, Siemens Gallery, Istanbul (Turkey) 2008: “The Lamb´s Mother in the Creche?”, Chert Berlin (Germany) 2006: “MIGRE”, curated by Katia Anguelova and Alessandra Poggianti, Careof Milan (Italy)
