Hamburger Kunsthalle just opened a big groupshow under the title «Art and Alphabet» – a perfect match for a blog with the title «Parole, parole, parole…»! Although I’m presenting more images than texts in the last time, but that might hopefully change again soon.
The artwork «Abetare» from the year 2015 by Petrit Halilaj (*1986) in the exhibition «Art and alphabet» at Hamburger Kunsthalle
Here we see the work «Abetare» from the year 2015 by Petrit Halilaj (*1986) who comes from Kosovo. Petrit Halilaj uses the cute design of his old school book with its playful illustrations to turn them into a wallpaper installation. This book uses the traditional way of teaching the alphabet by connecting each letter with a word and a drawing. Petrit Halilaj learned the Albanian language with this book like all of the other children in the 1990ies – at a time when the suppression of the Albanian population through the Serbian government was at its peak.
So the winsome pictures tell also a different and hidden story about the process of inheriting a language and of transfering it together with its certain cultural knowledge to form single stories into a history. •
«Corner Exclamation» by Richard Artschwager (1923 – 2013) in the big groupshow at Hamburger Kunsthalle with the title «Art and Alphabet»