MILAN.- “Space Shuttle in the Garden” brings together a dozen projects by Petrit Halilaj (b. 1986, Kostërrc, Kosovo), in a game of echoes that intertwines with the indoor and outdoor settings of Pirelli HangarBicocca December 3, 2015 – March 13, 2016, free admission).

The show presents a selection of works from recent years, most shown for the first time in Italy, as well as readapted pieces and new ones conceived specifically for the occasion. Setting out from the life and history of the artist, his family and his native country, the exhibition explores universal themes such as memory, the search for identity, and the concept of home as both a shared and private space, arriving at reflections on community and on the creation and preservation of a common cultural heritage.

“Space Shuttle in the Garden” is above all a journey into the artist’s universe and mythology that springs from his own story. Through sculptures, drawings, performances, videos and large-scale installations, Halilaj explores the tides of history and the changes in the world around him, recounting the “revolutions” of his homeland and his generation. The artist lived through the brutal conflict between Kosovo and Serbia (1998-1999) and experienced life as a refugee. Above all, in a more knowing way, he has seen the rebirth of an independent country, the constant fight for integration and the European dream. Having divided his time for many years between Italy (where he came in 2004), Kosovo and Germany, Halilaj represents a new generation with a complex, multicultural identity, evinced and embodied by his works. Each piece, while drawing on events and stories of the past and present, looks to the future, because it harbors the artist’s hopes and desires, hinting at visions and dreams that have yet to come true.

Positioned outside Pirelli HangarBicocca, the work They are Lucky to be Bourgeois Hens II (2009) serves as an antechamber to the show: a rocket ship, its interior painted an elegant Klein blue and inhabited by chickens—a recurring subject in the artist’s work—invites us to discover a new still to be invented world. The installation creates a microcosm which visitors can observe but never enter: a setting that is familiar, yet seen with the upside down perspective of a viewer from outer space.

On the other hand, in It is the first time dear that you have a human shape (2012 and 2015), Halilaj has shaped pieces of metal into vastly enlarged reconstructions of the jewelry that his mother buried, along with her son’s drawings, to keep them safe during the war. Scattered through the exhibition space, these oversize baubles are a bizarre presence that evoke some of the key themes in the artist’s oeuvre. They tell a wholly personal, private story, yet lead into the broader, collective dimension of war and the ravages it brings: set into the jewelry, instead of stones or gems, is pulverized rubble from the artist’s first family home in Kostërrc, destroyed in the conflict.

And his family’s new house near Pristina, whose framework was reconstructed life-size for the Berlin Biennale in 2010,appears in a completely new form at Pirelli HangarBicocca. A stark, spectral image, the work evokes a sense of loss that nevertheless, as suggested by the title The places I’m looking for, my dear, are utopian places, they are boring and I don’t know how to make them real (2010-2015), shuns all sentimentality and nostalgia. Like a vast family portrait, the work describes an idealized place in constant transformation; suspended within Pirelli HangarBicocca’s Shed, the house is fragmented, reflecting the changes its inhabitants have lived through. All the rooms that we consider personal have broken away from the ones with collective, shared functions, to move freely through space and interact with the surroundings.

Lastly, Si Okarina e Runikut (2014) is a series of hand-sculpted pieces inspired by a Neolithic wind instrument found in the village of Runik, Kosovo, where Halilaj spent part of his childhood. The works are vessel flutes that invite visitor participation and can be played both individually or as a group. Elegantly poised on brass bases or freely strewn on the floor, they conjure up the mood of a magical forest whose earth harbors collective memories. Even the ancient sound produced by these sculptures evokes a primeval time, but the work is grounded above all in the present, in the public moment when the instruments are played. Si Okarina e Runikut thus becomes a metaphor for the entire show: a journey through private, personal experiences that,shared, become a tool for discovering ourselves and the world around us.

Petrit Halilaj was born in 1986 in Kostërrc, Kosovo, and divides his time between Berlin, Mantua, and Kosovo. He studied at the Brera Academy in Milan.

In 2013 he represented Kosovo in its first national pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. In 2010 he participated in the Berlin Biennale, and in 2011, his work was featured in the exhibition "Based in Berlin”. In 2014 he was artist in residence at Villa Romana, Florence, and in 2010 was short-listed for the prestigious “Blau Orange” prize for emerging artists, organized at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Berlin. In 2015, with Hans Ulrich Obrist, he co-curated “Thirty One” at the National Gallery of Kosovo in Pristina.

His work has been shown in solo exhibitions and projects at major museums such as Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2015), Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2015); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2014); National Gallery of Kosovo, Pristina (2013); Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris (2013); WIELS Contemporary Art Center, Brussels (2013); Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen, St. Gallen (2012); Kunstraum Innsbruck (2011); and Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina (2009). His group shows include exhibitions at Museo Marino Marini, Florence (2015); PAC, Milan (2015); SALTS, Basel (2015); Punta della Dogana, Venice (2015); Palazzo Cavour, Turin (2014); Villa Romana, Florence (2014); Museum Schloss Moyland, Bedburg-Hau, Germany (2013); The Kosovo Art Gallery, Pristina (2012); Museion, Bolzano (2012); Kunstverein Nürnberg, Nuremburg (2012); Nomas Foundation, Rome (2011); Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2011); New Museum, New York (2011); and Tershane, Istanbul (2008).