Performance view, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano, Britz & Mitte, 24th Biennale of Sydney, 2024. Photo: Lexi Laphor.
Neither wild, native, nor domestic, foxes are a city’s strange neighbours – moving under the cover of darkness they traverse the unmapped spaces between public and private spaces stealthily yet confidently.
Inspired by the fox’s stalking nature, artists Petrit Halilaj and Álvaro Urbano engage with the blurring of human and non-human worlds through Britz & Mitte. Painted with both artists wearing hyperrealistic fox costumes and using replica fox paws as brushes, the piece is painted in soot not unlike the coal dust that would have once coated White Bay Power Station.
Making a home of the in-between spaces, as a fox does, the work muddies the boundaries between the playful and bleak, the untamed and methodical.
Using their fox alter-egos to bridge the gap between lost natural and industrial worlds, Halilaj and Urbano pay tribute to the many layered geographies of urban landscapes. Appearing as if it were a series of cave paintings, the work imagines a past which calls out through history like a fox screams in the night.
Performance view, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano, Britz & Mitte, 24th Biennale of Sydney, 2024. Photo: Lexi Laphor.
Performance view, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano, Britz & Mitte, 24th Biennale of Sydney, 2024. Photo: Lexi Laphor.
Performance view, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano, Britz & Mitte, 24th Biennale of Sydney, 2024. Photo: Lexi Laphor.
Performance view, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano, Britz & Mitte, 24th Biennale of Sydney, 2024. Photo: Lexi Laphor.
Installation view at White Bay Power Station, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano, Britz & Mitte, 24th Biennale of Sydney, 2024. Photo: Document Photography.
Installation view at White Bay Power Station, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano, Britz & Mitte, 24th Biennale of Sydney, 2024. Photo: Document Photography.
Installation view at White Bay Power Station, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano, Britz & Mitte, 24th Biennale of Sydney, 2024. Photo: Document Photography.