Giacometti / Halilaj - We built a fantastic palace at night...

Exhibition catalogue Giacometti-Halilaj, presented at the Institut Giacometti, Paris (March 14 - June 8, 2025).

Marked by his childhood in war-torn Kosovo, Halilaj has placed children's drawings at the heart of his practice. Individual and collective histories intertwine to open up spaces of freedom. In 1932, Giacómetti copied a drawing of children seen on a sidewalk in his neighborhood.

Using this drawing as a starting point, Halilaj establishes a fine dialogue, revealing the importance of the theme of childhood in the work of his elder colleague. Richly illustrated with previously unpublished works, the catalog weaves a subtle network of lines between the artists. It unfolds the childlike vocabulary of the large-scale drawings in space that Halilaj calls “Abetare”.

Halilaj's intense relationship with children's drawings as a testimony to the contemporary world conceals a similar interest in Gacometti's work, deploying the rich themes of childhood, dreams, associations of ideas and the relationship with wonder.