Abetare Postcard (Baošić with Spider, Bunny and Hearts), 2025

Abetare Postcard (Baošić with Spider, Bunny and Hearts), 2025, Postcard, ink, frame, metal, Overall: 34.1 × 31.6 × 3 cm

In this series, Petrit Halilaj reworks postcards by adding doodles that correspond with his metal sculptures. The drawings are based on marks once carved into elementary school desks in Kosovo, including figures, words, and symbols like hearts, houses, birds, and clouds. By recreating these traces in three dimensions, Halilaj connects personal and collective memory to the present, highlighting children’s everyday creativity in a new context.

The series is part of Halilaj’s project Abetare, named after the traditional Albanian schoolbook used to teach children to read and write through depictions of daily life. These books were shared among families and preserved cultural identity. In the 1990s, during the Balkan wars, Halilaj and his peers learned from them. Through Abetare, he translates those early experiences—of learning, place, and community—into sculptural form, underscoring themes of connection, resilience, and cultural continuity.

In 2024, Halilaj took over the MET Rooftop in New York with the large metal sculptures of Abetare. Earlier iterations appeared at the Kölnischer Kunstverein (2015) and the Second Edition of the Mario Merz Prize in Turin (2017), where his presentation won the prize.