The artist from Kosovo, Petrit Halilaj is the youngest talent to be commissioned to create a specific work that will be adapted to the terrace of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. This will be Halilaj’s first major project in the United States, which is expected to transform “The MET Roof” with a giant sculpture installation.

“Halilaj’s work is deeply connected to the recent history of his native country, Kosovo, and the consequences of cultural and political tensions in the region,” writes The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET).

After a formative period in Italy, where he studied art at the Accademia di Brera, in Milan, Halilaj moved to Berlin in 2008, where he still lives and works. His projects span a variety of media, including sculpture, drawing, poetry and performance.

The exhibition is supported by the charity Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Petrit Halilaj made a splash with his collection “Abetare” which basically refers to how to learn the ABCs of any language. The tables he used in his exhibition represented 30 years of layered drawings. Halilaj took these drawings, enlarged them and made them into 3-D sculptures. Through the scribblings found on the banks, the artist explained how the war had affected school children and at the same time how they were affected by the internet world.

/k.s/