NY Times: Petrit Halilaj, refugee from Kosovo who painted war experiences

Periskopi

28 October 2021, 10:17(5 years ago)

Petrit Halilaj became one of Kosovo's most appreciated artists with works reflecting on his country's past. When Petrit Halilaj was 13, and refugees from the brutal war in Kosovo, a group of Italian psychologists arrived at his camp in Albania and handed him some pens. Halilaj soon [...]

Petrit Halilaj became one of Kosovo's most appreciated artists with works reflecting on his country's past.

When Petrit Halilaj was 13, and refugees from the brutal war in Kosovo, a group of Italian psychologists arrived at his camp in Albania and handed him some pens.

Halilaj was soon drawing dozens of bright paintings. But their subjects were by no means multicolored: in one, he described tanks that blew up one family's house; in another, a mass grave. Other pictures showed soldiers standing on lifeless bodies, with weapons or bloody knives apparently erected to celebrate.

Psychologists spent two weeks in the camp in 1999 trying to help children there deal with the traumas they had experienced during the war, in which ethnic Albanians fought against Serb troops. For Halilaj, an ethnic Albanian, those traumas were numerous. Serbian forces burned his house and captured his father. His family fled from one country to another until they ended up in Albania's shelter.

Halilaj in 1999 with Dr. Giacomo Poli, an Italian psychologist who encouraged the boy to draw in a camp of Albanian refugees.

Halilaj's vivid pictures impressed psychologists and not only them: reporters who visited the camp interviewed him for international news coverage. Halilaj told a Swedish broadcaster at the time that his sleep was marred by anxiety.

I feel happier when I spend times like this”, Halilaj said of the drawings, writes the New York Times, broadcasts Klankosova.tv.

Now, more than 20 years later, Halilaj is a growing figure in Europe's art world, whose work has emerged in Venice Bienalen and in museums across the continent. At his most recent exhibition in Corneall, England, Halilaj has returned to the shocking paintings he had drawn as a child who had seen a lot. The “multi-volcano show on this green feather” lasts until January 16th.

Forms in the “Many volcanoes on this green feather” are based on Halilaj's childhood drawings. When visitors enter the gallery, they see a landscape of exotic trees and birds.

In a recent tour of the exhibition, Halilaj, 35, said he reviewed the photos last year and was surprised by what he drew.

Amid violence, he said: “I saw all these peacocks and pigeons and pigeons and they were as big as soldiers, happy and proud”.

I took the space to draw landscapes that made me feel good. It was like saying: Yeah, it was terrible, but I can dream and love you too”