Memories From the Past Childhood, 2020
Time for Tea, 2022
Family, 2022
Silent Room, 2021
Nusja, 2020
Degradation of Nature, 2022
Coloured pencils on paper
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Acquired 2022
Artan Hajrullahu’s small-scale drawings document scenes of everyday life in Kosovo, his country of origin: people sleeping, watching television, eating, or simply sharing the same space. Drawn with coloured pencils on packaging paper, these images—snapshots unfolding away from the public gaze—are distinguished by their intimacy and quiet intensity. Against the backdrop of these everyday scenes, historical memory and cultural cross-fertilisation exist as subtle allusions through instantly recognisable figures and objects: children dressed as superheroes and crocheted doilies serve as carriers of these multiple layers and connections between past and present, tradition and modernity, East and West. Through the simplicity of gesture and their slightly unstable perspective, the scenes take on a subtle intimacy, transforming the familiar into a space for poetic observation.
In these seemingly simple snapshots, Hajrullahu explores how memory is inscribed in domestic spaces. The rooms he draws do not merely serve as backdrops for everyday life; they become places where personal experiences and collective histories intersect. Household objects, imbued with emotional and cultural references, are transformed into silent witnesses to a life unfolding between present and past. The simplified perspective and slightly awkward proportions distance the images from realism, creating the sense that these are scenes recalled from memory. Domestic elements—such as a wood-burning stove or an embroidered tablecloth—serve as vehicles of nostalgia, evoking experiences from the artist’s childhood and a world connected to the country’s past during the Yugoslav era. At the same time, certain details introduce a subtle sense of estrangement: a solitary figure drawing, surrounded by miniature toy animals; a cut-open watermelon resting on the floor; a child dressed as a superhero. These small deviations from what is expected catalyse a shift of the interpretative lens transforming domestic scenes into delicate, poetic narratives about memory, intimacy, and time.
Artan Hajrullahu was born in Pristina in 1991, in former Yugoslavia. He lives and works in Pristina, Kosovo.
