Petrit Halilaj: An Opera Out of Time

Petrit Halilaj will present his first major institutional solo exhibition in Berlin at Hamburger Bahnhof. The focus is on the artist's first opera work, “Syrigana”

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  – Petrit Halilaj, Yes but the sea is attached to the earth and it never floats around in space. The stars would turn off and what about my planet?, 2014

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  Petrit Halilaj, Shkrepëtima, Installationsansicht, Fondazione Merz, Turin, 2018

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  Petrit Halilaj, Shkrepëtima, Performance im ehemaligen Kulturhaus in Runik, Juli 2018

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  Petrit Halilaj, Portrait

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In addition to drawings, sculptures, and installations, new site-specific works will be 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. The exhibition will be the second solo show to be held in the Rieckhallen, which reopened in 2024, and will open during Berlin Art Week.

For his exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, Halilaj is developing an opera in collaboration with the Kosovo Philharmonic, founded after the end of the Kosovo War in 2000, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. 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 will be reconfigured within a site-specific installation and activated through multiple performances.

Additionally, the exhibition will feature five other large-scale installations drawn from peiods in the artist’s work, offering an insight into his practice as a whole.

The Berlin-based artist Petrit Halilaj (born 1986) creates complex worlds that provide space for freedom, longing, intimacy, and identity. His art is deeply connected to the history of his home country, Kosovo, and the cultural and political tensions in the region. His works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Venice Biennale, and Tate St Ives.

Runtime: Thu, 11/09/2025 to Sun, 31/05/2026

Price info: Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart + temporary exhibitions

Price: €16.00

Reduced price: €8.00

Reduced price info: Children and young people up to the age of 18 are admitted free of charge.

Takes place here:

• Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart

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