Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano
Petrit Halilaj (1986, Kostërrc-Skenderaj, Kosovo) and Álvaro Urbano (1983, Madrid, Spain) have developed a joint practice since 2014, intermixing their individual artistic careers and their shared personal lives. The artists approach their duo work as a way of expressing the intricacies of how the private and the public collide and influence each other as fluid dimensions.
Halilaj and Urbano are constantly creating a collaborative fiction through their duo work: collective memory blends with personal anecdotes, and utopian thinking is triggered by imagining how the idea of kinship expands beyond the human: Plants and animals takeover, becoming elements of the theatrics of intimacy. The artists have staged performances in which raccoons, foxes, seagulls, as well as imagined hybrid creatures are the main characters, surrounded by blown-up flowers and environments that activate spaces of resilience and resistance through the celebration of otherness.
Queerness and intimacy are key aspects of the artists’ work: they exercise them as means of world-making. With each project, they reconsider the normative aspect of society, offering alternatives that trigger spaces of negotiation in which collective memory and social expectations can be reconfigured. Their collaborative practice, developed alongside their individual work, generates unexpected paths through modulation, dialogue, and creative challenges. This dynamic expands to how both studios generate an ecosystem in which these visions are negotiated and crystallized, often involving a large cast of participants, including researchers, musicians and other artists.
Halilaj and Urbano jointly attended artist residencies at MAK, Los Angeles (2016-2017) and Villa Romana, Florence (2014).
Their work has been exhibited in the 24th edition of the Biennale of Sydney (2024); Nobel Peace Center, Oslo (2023); Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin (2023); Ocean Space, Venice (2023); Opéra Comique, Paris (2021); Arken Museum, Copenhagen (2021); Autostrada Biennale, Pristina (2021); 17th Rome Quadriennale, Rome (2020); Palacio de Cristal, Reina Sofia, Madrid (2020); Brücke-Museum, Berlin (2019); MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Mackey Apartments, Los Angeles (2017); PAC-Pavilion of Contemporary Art, Milan (2015); SALTS, Basel (2015); Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2015); Villa Romana, Florence (2014).
The artists have an upcoming solo exhibition at MACBA, Barcelona (2024).
Urbano and Halilaj’s work is also part of the collections Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary – TBA21, Madrid, and Colección Jumex, Mexico City.
Exhibitions / Projects
2024
Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Sea, MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona
Ten Thousand Suns, 24th Biennale of Sydney, Curated by Cosmin Costinaş and Inti Guerrero, White Bay Power Station, Sidney
2023
My Demons My Angels, ChertLüdde, Berlin
Forget-me-not, Commission for the Nobel Peace Center, Oslo
Nationalgalerie: A Collection for the 21st Century, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin
Un lac Inconnu, Curated by Vittoria Matarrese, Bally Foundation, Lugano
Thus waves come in pairs, curated by Barbara Casavecchia, Ocean Space, Venice
2022
Wie geht es jetzt weiter? Zwölf Erzählungen aktueller Kunst aus Spanien / Y ahora ¿hacia dónde vamos? Doce historias del arte contemporáneo español / Where will we go from here? Twelve stories told by contemporary artists from Spain, curated by Ana Ara and Rosa Ferré, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt
Blümen von Berlin, with Annette Frick, ChertLüdde, Berlin
K60, Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin
2021
Flowers in Art, Arken Museum, Copenhagen
Autostrada Biennale, curated by Övül Ö, Durmosoglu and Joanna Warsza, National Library, Phrishtina
Opéra Comique, one night installation, Paris
2020
17th Rome Quadriennal, curated by Sarah Cosulich and Stefano Collicelli Cagol, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome
Biennale Gherdëina 7, curated by Adam Budak, Dolomites, Ortisei, South Tyrol, Italy
Studio Berlin, A cooperation between Boros and Berghain, Berghain, Berlin
2019
The Garden Bridge, curated by Kinderhook & Caracas, Brücke-Museum, Berlin
2018
what is going to happen is not “the future”, but what we are going to do, ARCO, Madrid
2017
An ear, severed, listens, ChertLüdde, Berlin
Final Projects: Group XLIII, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Mackey Apartments, Los Angeles
2015
SUPER SUPERSTUDIO, PAC-Pavilion of Contemporary Art, Co-curated by Andreas Angelidakis, Vittorio Pizzigoni and Valter Scelsi, Milan
WLGTDWI (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), S.A.T.L.S., Basel
Ärger im Paradise (Trouble in Paradise), curated by Rein Wolfs, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn
2014
Open Studios, Villa Romana, Florence
Bibliography – Selected Articles
2024
“Addicted To Innocence” by Chus Martinez, Mousse Magazine, April 3, 2024, p 152-155.
2023
“Beyond Catastrophe: The Delicate Poetics of the Climate Crisis” by Evan Moffitt, ArtReview, 8 August 2023, online
“Thus Waves Come in Pairs” by Isabella Ubaldi, Sleek, 16 May 2023, online
“Thus waves come in pairs” by Stefano Mudu, FLASH ART, #361, p. 122
“Die Wiedergeburt des Hamburger Bahnhofs” by Swantje Karich, Welt, 16 June 2023, online
“Petrit Halilaj and Álvaro Urbano’s lively underwater world in Venice” by Catherine Bennett, Art Basel, 6 June 2023, online
“A Venice Art Installation Confronts Queerness and Climate Change” by Violet Conroy, AnOther, 10 May 2023, online
2022
“Petrit Halilaj and Alvaro Urbano with Annette Frick: Die Blüten von Berlin”, ArtReview, vol 74, no 5, Summer 2022
“Als wir Blüten sahen” by Brigitte Werneburg, Taz, 25 April 2022, online
“Confetti am Boden” by Nicola Kuhn, 19 March 2022, Tagesspiegel, online
“Der Gespräch der Blüten” by Ulrike Borowczyk, Berliner Morgenpost, 18 March 2022
“Die Galerie ChertLüdde ist bei Deko Behrendt gezogen” by Dirk Krampit, B.Z., 18 March 2022, online
2021
“Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano with Annette Frick” Art Review, Vol 74, No 5, 2021, March, print
“Flowers in Art” by Christian Gether, Gry Hedin, Naja Rasmussen, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark, 2021. ISBN 978-87-78751-447
“Rome’s Quadriennale: An Act of Love for a Mutant World” by Mariacarla Molè on ArtReview, 16 February 2021, online.
2020
“Esta es la Historia de las Flores Gigantes del Palacio de Cristal” by Tom C.Avendaño on Icon Design, ElPais, November 2020, online and Print.
“Studio Berlin Berghain” by Juliet Kothe, Dr. Klaus Lederer, Ed.: BOROS Foundation, gemeinnützig GmbH, DISTANZ Verlag, Berlin, 2020. ISBN 978-3-95476-369-6
Petrit at night Alvaro at night, “-a breath? a name?- the ways of worldmaking”, Biennale Gherdëina 7, by Franco Berardi et.Al., Institut Ladin Micurá de Rü, Italy, 2020, pp. 114-119. ISBN 978-88-8171-138-3
Publishing projects
“Kushtetuta”, #1 & 2, self-published fanzine edited by Alvaro Urbano and Petrit Halilaj