by Adrian Paci, ITA 2013, 26'
| WRITTEN AND DIRECT BY: Adrian Paci | PHOTOGRAPHY, EDITING, POST-PRODUCTION: Erfort Kuke | |
| SHOOTING: Adrian Paci | PRODUCTION: Jeu de Paume, Paris; Trondheim Kunst Museum, Trondheim; PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milano; Röda Sten Konsthall, Göteborg; Musée d’art Contemporain de Montreal; NCTM e ARTE, Milano; Unicredit Bank, Milano; TICA, Tirana; Vulcano,Venezia | |
| SOUND: Erfort Kuke |
Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte Film Festival 2013A block of marble quarried in China crosses the sea on a cargo ship. On this apparently destination-free journey, the block is transformed into an elegant classical column; the craftsmen are several Chinese artisans, who work decisively and masterfully, excluding any possibility of error; the marble-dust powders their faces, and whitens the ship’s bridge.
The story of this event, which Paci “allowed to happen” on board a factory-ship, becomes an eloquent visual metaphor, which, through art, touches themes such as work and cultural identity and, in the economic context, social and global dynamics.
This is the Albanian artist’s most involved work, as far as production’s concerned, and also his most stratified, and most loaded with symbolic references. In his video, “everything flows”, in fact, around the column as architectural element, which, taking form, represents the dialogue between East and West. Paci enchants with his images of rough beauty: the telecamera captures the crew’s expressions and gestures, when they occasionally muse on the sea’s troubled surface; slides along the sculptures vein-structure, revealing its silhouette before it disappears over the horizon.
The video and the column were presented in the context of the retrospective Vite in transito (Lives in Transit) at the Jeau de Paume. Both continued to travel together until they reached PAC Milano, where they’ll be on display until Jan. 14, 2014.
Adrian Paci
Born in Scutari in 1969, Adrian Paci left Albania in 1997, moving his family to Milan, where he still lives and works. Trained as a painter at Accademia di Belle Arti in Tirana, he’s always interwoven existential reflection and social investigation into his work, experimenting with different languages and producing work such as Albanian Stories (1997), Home to Go (2001), Centro di Permanenza Temporanea (2007), The Visitors (2012). The first artist to represent Albania at the Biennale di Venezia in 1999, he won the Premio Pino Pascali in 2007 and the Quadriennale di Roma 2008, Paci has shown solo at many important international institutions, including: PS1, MOMA, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2005; Kunsthaus Zurich, 2010; National Gallery of Kosovo, Pristina, 2012; Jeau de Paume, 2013. Group shows: Eurasia, MART, Rovereto; Street and studio in urban history of photography, Tate Modern, London, 2008; Human Condition, Kunthaus Graz, 2009; Premio Italia MAXXI, Roma, 2012; Biennale Istanbul, 2013.
Selected Filmography
2004 Turn On; 2005 Klodi; 2006 Per Speculum; 2007 Centro di permanenza temporanea;
2010 Electric Blue; 2011 Inside the Circle.
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