The Biography of a Building: Runik’s House of Culture by Hajde! Foundation and Petrit Halilaj with Ars Atelie

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  Storefront for Art and Architecture

  On view through Dec 13

  Source for The Biography of a Building: Runik’s House of Culture by Hajde! Foundation and Petrit Halilaj with Ars Atelie
  Sep 25 – Dec 13, 2026

  What does it take to bring a cultural space back into collective life? This question is at the heart of Hajde! Foundation’s work around the House of Culture in Runik, Kosovo. For years, the House of Culture was the social and cultural heart of the village, hosting theater performances, concerts, celebrations, public meetings, and everyday encounters. Like hundreds of Houses of Culture built across former Yugoslavia during the second half of the twentieth century, it was conceived as a civic space where culture and public life could unfold beyond the country’s major cities, becoming an important center of cultural life for Runik’s Albanian community. However, its activities were curtailed by the censorship and repression of the Milošević regime in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the building was subsequently impacted by the violence of the Kosovo War. Bullet holes remain visible on its facade, while its interior gradually fell into ruin.

  Schedule

  09.25.26 - 12.13.26

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