South likes: Petrit Halilaj at Chert, Berlin

South likes: Petrit Halilaj at Chert, Berlin
Of course blue affects my way of shitting
Chert Gallery, Berlin, Germany
April 26 – June 14, 2014

In the work of Petrit Halilaj, intimate narrations of childhood, family and emotions meet with the collective history of war, exodus and work that relate to Kosovo, the artist’s country of origin. Images of the bird archive from the former Natural History Museum of Kosovo have been reworked in a series of drawings by the artist, who took care to adorn the animals with beautiful exotic masks. The interest in birds is a predominant subject in Halilaj’s work: at the 2013 Venice Biennale, for the Kosovo Pavillion, he build a huge nest, inhabited by two canaries, alter egos of the artist and his lover. At Chert Gallery a big bird costume hangs on display in a corner, put away in plain sight after being used for the artist’s performance. In the same room a carpet lies on the floor, which bears the footprints of a passing-by chicken—reminiscent of other works produced by Halilaj in the past, from the series of drawings “Bourgeois Hens” to the sculptures “They are Lucky to be Bourgeois Hens”. Another work, Cleopatra, is connected with the defunct Museum of Pristhina, and especially to its collection of butterflies and insects. Here the artist realised a rotating bulb that imitates the the movements of insects and flies, when at night they swirl around around lamps, attracted by their lights. The exhibition at Chert is accompanied by a new publication which collects the artist’s writing alongside his most recent series of drawings “Several birds fly away when they understand it”. Both the texts and drawings link together history and fantasy, reality and absurdity; a dichotomy that connects memories and experiences both very intimate and yet involve collective concerns.

Michelangelo Corsaro

http://www.chert-berlin.com/ita/mostre.asp