Brilant Milazimi to Represent Republic of Kosovo at 61st Venice Biennale

Kosovan artist Brilant Milazimi has been selected to represent the Republic of Kosovo at the Sixty-First Venice Biennale, to take place May 9–November 22. José Esparza Chong Cuy will curate the country’s pavilion, which is commissioned by Hana Halilaj, curator at the National Gallery of Kosovo. 

Milazimi will present the immersive painting installation Hard Teeth (Dhëmbë të Fortë). The work comprises a fifty-six-foot-long canvas mounted on a self-standing structure and depicting a line of people, packed close together on mountainous Kosovan terrain, their circumstances and mien evoking stress and endurance. It will be shown in the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto, an octagonal church and monastery facing the Venetian lagoon.

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Brilant Milazimi au pavillon du Kosovo

Brilant Milazimi représentera le Kosovo à la 61e Biennale de Venise. L’artiste présentera Hard Teeth (Dhëmbë të Fortë), une installation picturale immersive constituée d’une toile de près de dix-sept mètres de long. Montée sur une structure autoportante, l’œuvre montre une file de personnes serrées les unes contre les autres dans un paysage montagneux du Kosovo, leurs expressions traduisant une tension et une endurance palpables. L’installation sera présentée dans la Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto, une église octogonale située face à la lagune vénitienne.

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A Guide to the 2026 Venice Biennale National Pavilions

For the first time, Kosovo will be represented by a painter: Brilant Milazimi, whose figurative canvases often feature people with elongated bodies. According to the pavilion’s jury, the new works produced by Milazimi will ask: “what happens to a person, a body, a nation, when it is endlessly in motion? What habits are formed in stillness? What tensions accumulate during pause?” José Esparza Chong Cuy, director and chief curator of New York’s Storefront for Art and Architecture, will curate the pavilion.

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Konferenca në BBK: Kosova prezanton projektin “Dhëmbë të Fortë” të Brilant Milazimit për Bienalen e Venecias 2026

“Të përfaqësoj Kosovën në Bienalen e Artit në Venecia është një nder i madh, jo vetëm si artist, por si dikush që e ka ndërtuar praktikën e vet brenda dhe në përgjigje të këtij vendi. Në Venecia dhe më gjerë, artistët nga vende më të vogla si Kosova shpesh priten të shpjegojnë veten, të prodhojnë narrativa të qarta dhe lehtësisht të lexueshme. Kjo nuk ka qenë kurrë ambicia ime. Unë dua të krijoj vepra që qëndrojnë të forta në qetësinë e tyre, që krijojnë një ambient ku të tjerët mund të hyjnë dhe të qëndrojnë. Një hapësirë që rezonon përtej përvojave individuale dhe që përcjell emocione pa pasur nevojë të jetë shpjeguese apo udhëzuese,” u shpreh Milazimi.

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Kosovo’s “Hard Teeth” Turns Waiting Into a Monument at Venice Biennale 2026

Kosovo will be represented at the 61st La Biennale di Venezia in 2026 by ‘Hard Teeth,’ an installation by artist Brilant Milazimi that examines waiting as a political and psychological condition shaped by uncertainty.

A 17 metre long landscape painting, picturing a dense sequence of closely huddled, waiting figures, titled ‘Hard Teeth,’ symbolising uncertainty and waiting, will be exposed for several months at the Santa Maria del Pianto Church in Venezia as part of the Venice Biennale.

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“Dhëmbë të fortë” shtrëngon pritjen përtej luftës dhe realitetit të Kosovës

Kur kanë mbetur më pak se katër muaj deri në prezantimin e artit të Kosovës në njërën prej ngjarjeve më të rëndësishme artistike në botë, përgatitjet tashmë po finalizohen. Piktura “Dhëmbë të fortë” e Brilant Milazimit për Pavijonin e Kosovës në edicionin e 61-të të Bienales Ndërkombëtare të Artit në Venecia, do të zërë vend në kishën “Chiesa di Santa Maria del Pianto”. Ambienti i zymtë dhe i çuditshëm i veprës “Dhëmbë të fortë” të artistit Milazimi strehohet në kishën me stil baroku, një nga hapësirat e çmuara të arkitekturës veneciane.

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2026 Venice Biennale pavilions: your go-to list

Brilant Milazimi was selected to represent Kosovo at the Venice Biennale. Born in Gjilan, Milazimi studied visual arts at the University of Prishtina. His paintings draw on the logic of the unconscious, often featuring symbols of social tension and unresolved conflicts, such as the recurring motif of clenched teeth. For the Biennale, Milazimi will present Hard Teeth (Dhëmbë të Fortë), an immersive painting installation curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy. The exhibition will feature new works, including a 17-metre painting depicting a line of figures across a mountain landscape reminiscent of Kosovo, mounted on a structure designed by the Mexico-City based architecture studio Lanza Atelier.

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Venice Art Biennale 2026: guide to the main exhibition, national pavilions & more

Brilant Milazimi steps into the 61st International Art Exhibition with Strong Teeth, a moody, slow-burning universe of suspended figures and unresolved states that feel both intimately psychological and sharply geopolitical. Curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy for the Republic of Kosovo, the presentation unfolds as an immersive, near-hypnotic environment where Milazimi’s elongated bodies dwell in tension, waiting, enduring, enduring some more, hovering between contentment and unease. The work mirrors Kosovo’s own liminal status on the world stage, touching on partial recognition, bureaucratic inertia, and the emotional weather of contemporary displacement.

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Watch the full interview here.

Brilant shine in Venice

Suzanne: You often depict clenched teeth in your art. Why?
Brilant: Clenched teeth stand for anxiety and waiting, though sometimes also freezing, like that moment Migjeni describes in his 1937 New Year’s letter to a friend.
Read the full interview here.

Hana's Melting Clocks & Monumental Spiders

With the National Gallery’s reopening ahead and Kosova heading to the Venice Biennale in 2026 (Hana is representing the National Gallery as commissioner of Kosova pavillion), we figured it’s a great time talk to her for a TenTen interview.
Read the full interview here.