Adrian Paci: Precarious Life

Adrian Paci was born in Shkoder, Albania in 1969. After the civil war in Albania, he relocated to Italy in 1997 and lived then in Milan. Although originally trained in Tirana as a painter, in Milan, he began experimenting with the medium of video. This allowed him to develop and articulate an ongoing narrative exploring the consequences of political shifts in his country, as well as commemorating its traditions and customs.

Featuring Adrian Paci’s work from 2000 to 2008, the title of the exhibition refers to the lives of individuals portrayed in each one of the videos, and to the thin thread of uncertain survival, albeit sustained by the strength of tradition.

• A Real Game (2000) shows Adrian Paci’s four-year-old daughter telling her life story to her father, unexpectedly introducing adult notions such as ‘birth certificate’, ‘banks’, and ‘Italian Embassy’.

• In Vajtojca (2002) Adrian Paci stages his own funeral, hiring a professional mourner to cry at his wake. The video ends with a handshake between the artist and the mourner.

• Piktori (2002) is a meditation on the artist’s role within society during periods of political upheaval and instability.
• Klodi (2005) is based on a dramatic, and at times absurd, tale told by Klodi, an Albanian exile, whose story parallels Adrian Paci's own experiences as an emigrant.

• PilgrIMAGE (2005) builds a visual bridge between the inhabitants of Shkoder and a holy icon (the Madonna del Buon Consiglio) in Genazzano (Italy).
• Nobody is Romantic Anymore (2008) tells the story of an Albanian man working as an artist in New York.

Curator: Paolo Colombo