Image: Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne
Kunstmuseum Luzern has opened pre-sales for a limited-edition work by Gerta Xhaferaj, whose solo exhibition at the Lucerne museum will run from 28 November 2026 to 31 January 2027. The edition, titled ‘The Bitumen Star’ on the museum’s exhibition page and ‘The Star’ in its shop listing, is intended to support the production of a new installation for the exhibition.
Xhaferaj, born in 1993, is the recipient of the Kunstgesellschaft Luzern’s ‘Solo’ exhibition prize. The award provides a solo presentation during zentral! 2026, the museum’s programme focused on contemporary art from Central Switzerland. The forthcoming exhibition is curated by Milena von Schulthess and supported by the Department of Culture of Basel-Stadt.
The edition takes the form of a small star made from stainless steel and filled with naturally occurring bitumen. It measures 7.5 by 7.5 by 2 centimetres and is produced in an edition of 12 plus one artist’s proof. The price is CHF 700, reduced to CHF 650 for members of the Kunstgesellschaft Luzern. The work is available exclusively through the Kunstmuseum Luzern shop, with collection scheduled from the exhibition’s opening reception on 27 November.
Bitumen is central to Xhaferaj’s current practice and to the installation presented in the exhibition. In ‘A Pause, a Rose, Something on Paper’, three photographs are covered with the black petroleum-based substance. The bitumen extends beyond the photographic frames, leaving the original images only partly legible. Among the obscured subjects are a candle associated with a religious ritual and the artist’s car after an accident.
The installation also includes a video assembled from footage Xhaferaj made as a child at family celebrations in Albania. The museum’s account describes how the artist later discovered that her father had replaced the blurred sections of the recordings with images of flowers he liked, apparently to beautify his daughter’s work. The exhibition brings these altered photographs and moving images into a wider consideration of memory, history, censorship and suppression.
The title ‘A Pause, a Rose, Something on Paper’ comes from a poem by the American poet Lyn Hejinian, which includes reflections on childhood memories. At the Kunstmuseum Luzern, the new installation will form the principal focus of the ‘Solo’ presentation, linking the limited edition’s material—natural bitumen in a steel frame—to the artist’s ongoing exploration of concealment, alteration and recollection. The vernissage is scheduled for Friday, 27 November, at 6 p.m., and the exhibition continues through 31 January 2027.
