We built a fantastic palace at night, which centers on the work of contemporary artist Petrit Halilaj and his poetic dialogue with Alberto Giacometti, at the Institut Giacometti.
Deeply shaped by his childhood in war-torn Kosovo, Halilaj has developed a distinctive artistic language in which personal and collective narratives intertwine to imagine spaces of freedom filled with playfulness, lightness, and emotional resonance.
At the heart of the exhibition is Halilaj’s response to a child’s drawing once copied by Giacometti. From this starting point, he initiates a subtle, dreamlike exchange that moves fluidly between drawing and sculpture. This dialogue unveils unexpected facets of Giacometti’s practice, while allowing Halilaj to explore themes that have long been central to his own work.
With nearly thirty works produced specifically for the exhibition, Halilaj explores in the childlike vocabulary of his Abetare a form of drawing in space, which has become a means of expression in its own right. The exhibition revisits the relationship of the two artists to childhood, dreams, idea associations, and their wonderment.