From Tate’s website: ‘Petrit Halilaj's work investigates cultural identity, nationhood and heritage, and ideas of personal and collective memories and freedoms.
Halilaj presents a powerful new work created for Tate St Ives. His installation revisits 38 childhood drawings that he made in Kukës II refugee camp in Albania during the Kosovo war (1998–99), when he was thirteen years old. Layering large-scale, hanging images throughout the gallery, Halilaj’s immersive environment combines the images that accompanied him during conflict. Poignant rural landscapes, birds and animals, are interspersed with scenes of war and violence. Very volcanic over this green feather reveals the complicated relationship of reality and imagination, and between the often divergent perspectives of official histories and lived experiences.
Halilaj lives and works between Germany, Kosovo and Italy. His work encompasses sculpture, video, drawing and text, as well as traditional fabrics and materials.’
From the catalogue: ‘Very volcanic over this green feather’ is Halilaj act of reshaping painful fragments of memory into a new understanding. This presentation of his personal history aims to make visible the collective trauma of the Kosovar Albanian people and other survivors of war. From the injustices of violence and conflict, Halilaj brings forward human resilience, courage and hope for healing and reclaiming the future.’
“It seems as if something is burning inside. The stress never sleeps, it’s cold outside, but it is raining warm rain inside. Very volcanic over this green feather.” Petrit Halilaj
Photos: Bobby Lloyd, Tate St Ives, 04.01.22
