Paris, France —It’s time to return to the Institut Giacometti—the Giacometti Institute in the heart of the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris, a neighborhood with a deep connection to art and artists. The current exhibition underway at the Institut is entitled We Built a Fantastic Palace at Night, a reference to how Alberto Giacometti described his sculpture dating from 1932 entitled The Palace at 4 a.m. Commenting on that work he said, « We built a fantastic palace at night…a very fragile palace made of matches: one wrong move and part of the tiny sculpture collapsed: we started it all over again and again. » The Palace, a monumental drawing in space is displayed in the main room of the Institut Giacometti alongside other works by the artist which are in turn juxtaposed with the whimsical, dream-like works of the contemporary artist Petrit Halilaj, who was deeply marked by his childhood in Kosovo during the war. He is inspired by the drawings of children to create his works that tell collective and individual stories but which retain a certain playfulness and lightness, opening up a magical horizon. And like that fragile palace that Giacometti refers to, he can identify with precarity. « It is the common thread between all the houses I lived in, and that my family and I lost or had to leave and that we tried to rebuild: that in Runik (Editor’s note: Kosovo) after the war, then in 2010, the family house in Pristina. For this exhibition, the idea of building a dream palace immediately came into my mind, » commented Petrit Halilaj.

Left: Petrit Halilaj Abetare Luna and Silvio in patinated steel, 2024. Courtesy Mennour Paris. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette. Right: Petrit Halilaj Abetare Eye in bronze, 2025. Courtesy Mennour Paris. Handout via The Gourmet Gazette

The Institut Giacometti regularly brings to life its extensive collections. The palace show comes to a close on June 8th and will be followed by a show devoted to Giacometti’s friendship with two of the great 20th century intellectuals: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre opening up on June 17th. The Institut Giacometti is part of the Fondation Giacometti devoted to exhibitions and research in art history and pedagogy. Alberto Giacometti’s mythical studio, whose elements in their entirety, had been kept by his widow, Annette Giacometti, is on permanent display at the Institute. Conferences, workshops and guided tours are all on the agenda with guided visits in English on Saturdays at 11am. The current exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue in a bilingual French/English edition. The Institute, which has an eclectic program of performances and conferences, is open Tuesdays to Sundays, from 11am until 6pm. https://www.fondation-giacometti.fr/en 5 rue Victor-Schoelcher, 75014 Paris, France, +33 (0)1 44 54 52 44, ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette