TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Petrit Halilaj & Alvaro Urbano

Álvaro Urbano and Petrit Halilaj are internationally acclaimed artists whose collaborative and individual practices span installation, sculpture, drawing, and performance. Together, they create deeply poetic works that explore themes of memory, identity, transformation, and the natural and built environments.

Álvaro Urbano, born in Madrid in 1983, studied architecture before pursuing fine arts at the Institut für Raumexperimente in Berlin. His work is known for its theatrical sensibility and its capacity to animate architecture and objects with narrative and emotion. He constructs immersive environments that often shift between reality and fiction, asking viewers to reconsider the familiar through a dreamlike lens.

Petrit Halilaj, born in Kosovo in 1986, experienced the upheaval of the Kosovo War as a child—an experience that profoundly informs his work. Educated at the Brera Academy in Milan, Halilaj’s art often examines themes of home, displacement, and cultural heritage. His installations combine personal history with collective memory, incorporating materials such as earth, feathers, furniture, and archival documents.

As life partners and frequent collaborators, Urbano and Halilaj share a practice rooted in care, love, and storytelling. Their joint works often include living materials and staged environments that speak to the power of intimacy and the importance of alternative histories. In 2023, they received international recognition for their collaborative installations that celebrate queer ecologies and fluid forms of kinship.

They have exhibited at major institutions including the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Venice Biennale, Tate St Ives, Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid), and Ocean Space (Venice). At Ocean Space in 2023, they presented Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas, a transformative installation composed of sculptures and musical instruments designed to interact with their environment—merging sound, movement, and narrative into a living, evolving ensemble.

For more information about their work, visit Álvaro Urbano’s website: https://alvarourbano.com
And Petrit Halilaj’s website: https://petrithalilaj.com

Related works in the collection

Álvaro Urbano La vida breve (GRANADA GRANADA), 2023

Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas, 2023

Thus Waves Come in Pairs. Thinking with the Mediterraneans
Sternberg Press, 2023

Thus waves come in pairs: Simone Fattal and Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano