Brilant Milazimi has been selected to represent the Republic of Kosovo at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. In 2026, Milazimi will present Hard Teeth (Dhëmbë të Fortë), an immersive painting installation, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy. 

This new body of work by Milazimi is anchored by a 17-meter-long landscape painting depicting a single line of figures standing closely, one behind the other, across mountains reminiscent of Kosovo’s rural terrain. Echoing the visual language of procession scenes, the work gathers frail bodies that appear to linger in the landscape. 

Mounted on a self-standing structure designed by LANZA and staged within the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto, the installation invites close looking. The figures persist and wait, with their teeth tightly clenched. 

What they are waiting for is never named. This suspension of time and destination reflects decades of lived indeterminacy shaped by political transition, contested recognition, and unfinished bureaucracies of sovereignty for Kosovo. Hard Teeth gives form to the physical and psychological strain of endurance without resolution, capturing an atmosphere of feelings.