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In the work of Adrian Paci (Shkoder, Albania 1969) the poetic force of recollections and distance come together through the diverse techniques used by the artist – painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation - to redefine the identity of the individual and a people whose lives have been threatened by migratory processes under way in the new millennium. His work is, in fact, often a reflection on themes such as home and emotional ties, which are understood both a values that affect both the public and private domain. In order to do this he does not hesitate to spotlight the difference between imagination and reality, as in the scenes of his wedding or in the images from a well-known video in which one of his daughters sings an Albanian nursery rhyme to the rest of her relatives, who answer back from the lower corner of an opposite screen. The theme of roaming is central to the large-scale photographs in which the artist portrays himself as a modern Christ, forced to carry an upturned roof on his back instead of the cross.
Paci’s work makes us think about what it means for each of us to belong to a specific context, about how our own private dimension interacts with everything that is foreign to it, and the relationship with our roots - not necessarily with respect to the conditions of an immigrant in the strictest sense, but in a way that is more open to disorientation and the task of identifying one’s own “home”.
These aspects make the Paci a very interesting figure for young artists, together with the different cultural exchange experience being offered.
Paci has had numerous one-man shows dedicated to his work in Italy and abroad, these include exhibitions at the Kunstverein in Hanover in 2008, the PS1 at the MOMA in New York, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm 2005 and the Baltic Art Center in Gotland in 2003. We must not forget that in 2008 a one-man show has been organised at the Center for Contemporary Art CCA in Tel Aviv.
Group shows include the Prague Biennial in 2007, the Busan Biennial, Korea, and the Sydney Biennial in 2006, the Biennale di Venezia in 2005, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Torino and the Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea in Trento in 2002.
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