Designboom_ If you’re flying to Mexico soon, you may find yourself boarding an aircraft with a chicken drawing by Petrit Halilaj. The Kosovar artist has inscribed a large-scale chicken—a bird famously known as one of the few unable to fly—onto a Boeing 737 aircraft operated by Aeroméxico. The illustration is accompanied by Albanian text reading ‘From Runik with love, referring to Halilaj’s hometown as well as the title of his latest exhibition at Museo Tamayo, in Mexico. Running until April 2024, the show, titled Petrit Halilaj: RUNIK, brings together an array of artworks, including colossal flowers, otherworldly avian creatures, sculptures, drawings, and installations, all transforming the museum’s spaces into a fantastical world.

Petrit Halilaj’s animal sculptures and other intricate installations gather around a scaled floating representation of the house he and his family constructed in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital. This new dwelling was built following the destruction of their old home in Runik during the Kosovo War bombings. Both the symbolic rendition of his family’s former residence and the airplane motif encapsulate Halilaj’s memories of belonging and aspirations for migration.

Petrit Halilaj: RUNIK at Museo Tamayo marks the artist’s inaugural solo exhibition in Latin America, illustrating how art functions not only as his conduit for exploration and understanding of the world but also as a means to navigate complex emotions surrounding his homeland’s history and his personal identity. Presently residing in Berlin yet deeply connected to Kosovo and various global locales, Halilaj’s concept of home is rooted in emotional bonds.