Poisoned by men in need of some love
In his youth, Petrit Halilaj was an eyewitness to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the war in former Yugoslavia, and their aftermaths. The video installation July 14th? and sculptures Poisoned by Men in Need of Some Love reveal the nationalist influence, sparked by this major conflict of the late twentieth century, on Kosovar heritage. Before the war, a well-known collection of taxidermy mounted animals was presented to the Museum of Natural History in Pristina. The political upheaval transformed the museum into an institution celebrating national identity, and the animals were replaced by objects of folklore, compromising their conservation. Relegated to the basement, the stuffed critters gradually mummified and decomposed. In 2013, Halilaj documented their exhumation, recreating and filming sculpted artefacts, thus bringing these animals, who had already suffered a double death, back to life.