Petrit Halilaj. Shkrepëtima

Of Kosovar origin, Petrit Halilaj (Kostërrc, Skenderaj-Kosovo 1986)is the winner of the art section of the second edition of the Mario Merz Prize, the biennial international award for art and music promoted by the Fondazione Merz.

In this new solo show at Fondazione Merz – which is the final point of a three-part project curated by Leonardo Bigazzi – Halilaj continues the investigation into the historical roots of the town of Runik, intervening on the ground in order to change the processes of constitution of collective history and bring the community closer to its origins.

The first part of the project was a performance that took place on July 7 at the ruins of the Cultural Centre of Runik (Kosovo); the two exhibitions at the Zentrum Paul Klee and at the Fondazione Merz present 40 new drawings executed by the artist after examining the documentary remains found at the Cultural Centre in Runik. The series functions as a conceptual storyboard for the performance and at the same time as a visual plot of the village’s cultural history.