mymodernmet.com: Kosovar artist Petrit Halilaj has created a fantastical, yet deeply personal, installation for his first solo exhibition at the Reina Sofía's Palacio de Cristal in Madrid. Inspired by the elaborate courtship rituals of bowerbirds, who are known for decorating structures to attract a mate, he's strung up enormous flowers inside the glass conservatory.
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Oh the joy to be reminded that art exists. The exhibition is beautiful. It is grand and it feels ethereal and full of life. It makes me want to go off and wander into the woods, which relates to my stance that art will continue to exist no matter what. This was the artist’s first solo piece, which I can only assume was worked on during the course of 2020. And in spite of everything going on in the world, this piece was able to be completed, set up, and shared about where it could. I’m not a very design-driven person, so far I have really only dabbled in the more technical side of things. I find the piece inspiring as I continue to move forward with my more design-driven classes, not because I find some deep meaning in the exhibition but by the amazement of what people can accomplish. And I think that is a good enough reason for art to exist.
This article made me so happy to read. It was so nice to read about an artist creating a high exhibit as their first solo piece, and to see the passion in this project. Honestly, it was just really nice to read an article this week not about people who have gone unemployed because of the pandemic. I thought the photos of this installation were beautiful. I kept scrolling back through all the photos just to look at them again because they were so pretty. I don’t think I really understood the whole connection of these flowers to the mating rituals of the birds, but I don’t even know if I needed to, I still found the work remarkable. But reading about the artist and his inspiration was so fascinating to me, because I really just admire that creativity and certainty he has in his work. Also that bird person in the installation is so cool. I can’t tell if it is a sculpture or if it is a person with a bird mask posing for these photos or if they are really there are the time. But I did think it was definitely interesting.
Talk about a scale surprise! I am sure Susan would be proud. It is nice to see something as lovely and good hearted as this in the current news cycle that has been doom and gloom for far too long. I like how well this artist used the space they were working in and made it entirely a part of the piece as well. It feels like I was flying through Phipps as a bird, which I guess was kind of the point. The themes of acceptance and love really shine through here, making the struggle between hope and fear really palpable. The materials choice to me is interesting. At first I felt like they were not well thought out and were too human made rather than natural looking, but on second thought, maybe that was kind of the point. It shows the juxtaposition between the natural world and what human impressions we project onto it.
This piece is so beautiful both in meaning and in presentation. The deadly personal message is beautiful. The celebration of love is not something that we see so much represented in art these days. For the most part art is now used for making statements and talking about controversies. While there is definitely a statement being made with this piece it seems to be first and foremost a celebration of love. The presentation of this piece is also stunning. Instead of lots of small flowers, the fewer very large flowers show the viewer in a different perspective of the world the artist has created. It gives them a different perspective on both the flowers and the message behind them. The scale choice truly immerses the viewer in the beautiful world the artist has created.
The images of the human with the bird head mask in this giant hall sparsely decorated with these large flowers really resonate with me, especially in these quarantine times. The blurring of the human space versus the outdoors is illustrated with these giant flowers in this manmade space, open windows to let birds enter and nest in the installation, and, like Cooper mentioned, the natural objects being man-made with non-natural materials – just to name a few. These images of a bird human exploring the space emphasize that mashing of worlds together. The emptiness of this also rings eerily true in the current Corona season. Some of these photos make me feel as if the birdman would rather interact with the nature outside of the building rather than embrace the art within – similar to how so many of us are getting stir crazy in our homes, craving the outdoors. I would love to see what this exhibit looks like now – if birds are actually nesting there, and if more birds will congregate as the weather gets colder.
It’s pretty cool reading an article about the arts nowadays that doesn’t talk about how the arts are suffering and how everyone is unemployed. It’s a little glimmer of hope to still see people surviving and things still being made. I love how the giant flowers look in the glass space, and how it makes me think of some kind of enchanted forest. I also think it would be really fascinating to see what his creation and design process for these things were, or how they managed to install them into the space. I’m not quite sure I understand everything about his concepts or messages of the installation, but I can kind of grasp the feeling of love, identity, and acceptance. Overall I mostly just think it’s really pretty and I hope the exhibition does well. I also hope that there are more positive articles like this in the future.
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