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#bronze
#childhood
#Petrit Halilaj
#sculpture

“Abetare” (2024). All photos by Eileen Travell, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, shared with permission

When visiting his hometown of Runik, Kosovo, back in 2010, Petrit Halilaj realized that his elementary school was being demolished. He went to the site—which had miraculously survived the Yugoslav wars that spurred his family to flee to an Albanian refugee camp in 1998—and found a pile of desks, many with doodles and notes scratched into their surfaces.

These etchings have now found their way to New York, where they’re perched atop The Met’s rooftop garden for Abetare, which translates to primer, as in the early education books used for learning basic literacy. Enlarged to proportions that would crush any singular tabletop, the rough drawings are presented as scratchy bronze sculptures depicting a flower, house, and spider á la Louise Bourgeois.

For the exhibition, Halilaj (previously) paired his initial findings with other scribbles recovered from desks throughout Albania, North Macedonia, and Montenegro, Balkan countries impacted by Serbian hostilities following Yugoslavia’s dissolution. “For me, returning to the region and visiting numerous schools was prompted by a desire to construct my own intimate map, in contrast to historical maps that reflect dominant narratives,” he shares. “We do not exist in isolation. We are shaped by each other’s identities, both positively and negatively.”

On view through October 27, Abetare features smaller works among the freestanding sculptures, including an arrow with Runik written in the center. Halilaj fastened that smaller piece to a concrete wall and pointed it toward the village as a way to tether the distant locations.

While playful and evocative of adolescent impulse, the works are a reminder of how war and conflict warp innocence. The project is also particularly timely as the city contends with helping tens of thousands of school-age migrants and the world witnesses mass atrocities in Palestine and Ukraine. Magnifying childhood transgressions, Abetare highlights what the artist refers to as small “acts of freedom” that defy ideology and systemic oppression.

Find more from Halilaj on Instagram.

#bronze
#childhood
#Petrit Halilaj
#sculpture

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The late legend Kobe Bryant has served as the cover star for NBA 2K24 and, for many, a strong incentive to reach the top Collector Level in the game’s MyTeam mode. As the NBA playoffs’ first round wraps up, many fans are more disappointed than excited with the most recent NBA 2K title, as developer Visual Concepts has pulled back on a promise made prior to launch. 

In the lead-up to the game’s release date, the NBA 2K24 developer Visual Concepts released a blog post running down the features of its card-collection mode, MyTeam. In that blog post, the developer laid out several features and rewards for the then-upcoming title. It took special care to devote a section to an upcoming Collector Level reward, Kobe Bryant. 

In that post, the developer highlights just how crucial Collector Level rewards are to the overall MyTeam experience. “Collector level rewards have always been important in MyTEAM, and last year the rewards came as surprises with a hidden end goal,” the blog post from prior to launch stated. “So let’s look forward a few months and reveal that Kobe Bryant will be the top reward in the Collector Level, and this reward will be available in April, during Season 6.”

First reported by The Washington Post‘s Herb Scribner, with further reporting done by Forbes’ Paul Tassi, NBA 2K24 has changed its top Collector Level reward to not include Kobe Bryant. Instead, players can now choose from two previously released 100-overall cards. However, according to multiple community members, the most recent 100-overall card, Yao Ming, is not an option for players to choose from.

Centering a Collector Level reward around such an iconic and beloved player likely encouraged many to grind (or spend) to achieve the top Collector Level and obtain the reward. Many players have taken to social media and the NBA 2K Community Discord server to voice their displeasure. As of this writing, neither the official NBA 2K nor NBA 2K MyTeam account has posted anything regarding the situation, and the “developer-supported and community-run” NBA 2K Subreddit contains zero posts about the missing reward. However, the MyTeam Subreddit has multiple player-posted threads regarding the problem.

The only community-facing comment from the NBA 2K team that I have found was posted on the official NBA 2K Community Discord. That comment matches the comment provided to me by a 2K spokesperson when I requested comment from the publisher. You can read the entire statement provided by a 2K spokesperson below.

2K strives to deliver the very best NBA 2K24 MyTEAM experience to the community. Please note that a change to a reward has occurred. Players who achieve a top Collector Level will now receive an Option Pack for two picks out of ten previously released 100 OVR Cards. We appreciate that players have dedicated time and effort throughout the year to achieve this reward and 2K is committed to ensuring players continue to earn valuable content as their reward.

I followed up requesting additional information on why the change was made, but the spokesperson declined to comment further. Some online speculation has posited that licensing issues are to blame, but there is no confirmation or evidence to support that theory outside of 2K’s unwillingness to comment further at this time.

NBA 2K24 arrived on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on September 8, 2023. While the gameplay is one of the stronger elements of the title, among our reviewer’s chief complaints involved the increasingly intrusive microtransactions that permeate multiple long-term modes within the game. This controversy surrounding one of the most monetized modes does little to refute that criticism. You can read our full review here.