Petrit Halilaj is developing an opera for his exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, in collaboration with the Kosovo Philharmonic, which was founded after the end of the Kosovo War in 2000. The starting point is the legendary site of Syrigana, a three-thousand-year-old village near Halilaj’s hometown of Runik. Since 2016, it has been protected as an archaeological site of prehistory, late antiquity, and the Middle Ages. The elements of the opera are reconfigured within a site-specific installation.
Additionally, the exhibition features five other large-scale installations drawn from periods in the artist’s work, offering an insight into his practice as a whole. In addition to sculptures, installations, and videos, new site-specific works are showcased. At the heart of the exhibition is the artist’s first opera, which explores the potential of collective dreaming to bring forth emancipatory worlds.