Pe­trit Ha­li­laj — An Ope­ra Out of Time: Dreams bet­ween Past and Fu­ture

Wi­th “An Ope­ra Out of Time”, the Ham­bur­ger Bahn­hof — Na­tio­nal­ga­le­rie der Ge­gen­wart is pre­sen­ting Pe­trit Ha­li­la­j’s first ma­jor in­sti­tu­tio­nal so­lo ex­hi­bi­ti­on in Ber­lin. At the cent­re of the ex­hi­bi­ti­on is the ar­tis­t’s ope­ra work, which was crea­ted in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on wi­th the Ko­so­vo Phil­har­mo­nic Or­ches­tra. In­spi­red by the le­gen­da­ry site of Sy­ri­ga­na, a th­ree-thousand-year-old vil­la­ge ne­ar his home­town of Runik, the ope­ra ex­plo­res the pos­si­bi­li­ties of coll­ec­ti­ve dre­a­ming. The in­stal­la­ti­on in­vi­tes us to break away from the fa­mi­li­ar and dis­co­ver new, eman­ci­pa­to­ry worlds.

In ad­di­ti­on to the ope­ra pro­ject, the ex­hi­bi­ti­on of­fers a com­pre­hen­si­ve in­sight in­to Ha­li­la­j’s ar­tis­tic de­ve­lo­p­ment — wi­th lar­ge-sca­le in­stal­la­ti­ons, sculp­tures and vi­deo works from va­rious crea­ti­ve pha­ses. Ha­li­la­j’s works, which are cha­rac­te­ri­sed by free­dom, lon­ging and iden­ti­ty, al­so re­flect the histo­ry of his home coun­try Ko­so­vo and the chal­lenges of cul­tu­ral and po­li­ti­cal trans­for­ma­ti­on. The ex­hi­bi­ti­on makes it clear how art can ser­ve as a space for so­cial re­flec­tion and ho­pe.