Petrit Halilaj (Kosovar, born in 1986) carries in his work the memories and traumas of the recent Balkan war that forms for him the starting point for thinking about history, heritage and the idea of community in a broad sense. Having experienced displacement and violence himself, Halilaj reflects on the complexity of the past and present times using a striking poetic visual language that is full of commonly recognizable signs and symbols, which enables him to reach big audiences.

Since 2015 Halilaj has used found tattered classroom tables with children’s scribbles scratched on their surface as elements of his sculptures. The desks often came from demolished schools in Kosovo or other parts of the Balkans where the artist found them and later reused. The graffities and words that Halilaj came across on the desks has been transformed into bronze sculptures, like the heart in the work Heart Face Rising from the Abetare (Alphabet) series, 2024. The generic form of the heart is familiar to all of us, regardless our nationality or upbringing, and its symbolic meaning of love and care is universally understood as well. The visible modifications of the heart lines stress the emotional involvement of its first unknown maker, while the simple face features added to the heart bring into mind childlike innocence and creativity.

This seemingly naïve approach to the medium sculpture stands in stark contrast to its tradition of monumentality that resonated in lots of glorifying statues in the past. In a very subtle manner, Halilaj permanently questions how the systems of power and oppression operate.