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Adrian Paci
Lives in Transit
26 February – 12 May 2013
Concorde
Home to Go (detail), 2001
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
While the context of his first works was defined by
the experience of exile, Adrian Paci (born in Shkodra,
Albania, in 1969) has gradually widened his scope
from the personal to the collective. His projects
focus on the consequences of societal conflicts and
upheavals, showing the degree to which identity is
shaped by socio-economic context. His works explore
the feeling of loss, the assertion of identity, and the
mutability and displacement of human identity. He
draws his illustrations of the human condition from
episodes in everyday life, shifting these towards
fiction and poetry by playing on the tensions between
their dramatic and magical aspects. For his first
retrospective in France, Paci is presenting a highly
diverse selection of videos, installations, paintings,
photographs and sculptures made since 1997.
Illustrating his movements between different mediums,
the exhibition also highlights the bold ways in which
he revisits the history of art and cinema.
room 1
The Encounter, 2011
Centro di Permanenza temporanea, 2007
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan, & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
room 2
Vajtojca [Mourner], 2002
Video, colour, sound, 9’10’’
Vajtojca is like a kind of rite of passage. Adrian Paci
stages his own funeral wake, held in accordance with
the Albanian tradition. Sitting beside his deathbed a
mourner sings a compelling complaint – after which
the artist rises from the bed, as if resurrected.
Centro di Permanenza temporanea
[Centre of Temporary Residence], 2007
Video, colour, sound, 5’30’’
A silent cortege of passengers shuffles towards
a flight of boarding stairs; soon, all the steps are
filled. The camera pores slowly over the grave
faces of these men and women queuing to travel
to an unknown destination. The scene becomes
confusing, however, when the frame widens to
show that there is no aeroplane at the end of these
stairs. The limbo of these boarders symbolises
the paradoxical state of permanent transition that
is the daily lot of migrants.
Video, colour, sound, 22’
Outside the church of San Bartolomeo de Scicli in
Noto (Sicily), people in their hundreds line up to shake
hands with Adrian Paci. This everyday gesture, a
sign of conviviality and sharing, is repeated in ritual
fashion while the mysterious procession creates a
sense of both union and tension with the local urban
setting, now the theatre for this encounter between the
artist and a mixed mass of individuals, as he exposes
his identity in relation to a specific community.
The Last Gestures, 2009
4 channel video installation, couleur, dimensions variable
Forming a fragmented scenario around preparations
for a traditional wedding, The Last Gestures
captures the silent, ritualised exchanges between
the future bride and her family, resonant with the
sorrow of their future separation. The characters’
awareness that they are being watched makes
them the conscious actors in a codified drama.
The Last Gestures, 2009
Brothers, 2010
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan, & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan
Amplifying the symbolism of the actions and
expressions, the slowing of the scenes gives
the video a pictorial quality.
that exists both in the filmmaker’s work and his own
between time and image, movement and duration,
icon and realism.
Inside the Circle, 2011
Brothers, 2010
Video, colour, sound, 6’33’’
Marble mosaic on resin panel and wood, 160 x 190 x 25 cm
This work explores the complex dynamic between
man and animal, as illustrated in the interaction
between a trainer and a horse. In the bareness of
their actions, which mix in a single expressive code,
they seem to be reviving a primitive bond, oblivious to
the distinction between species. Their relation unfolds
in a choreographed role-play in which the leader
– the woman – finally attains self-definition.
room 3
Secondo Pasolini (Decameron)
[After Pasolini (Decameron)], 2006
12 gouaches on paper mounted on canvas, 38 x 70 cm each
Secondo Pasolini (Il Fiore delle Mille e una Notte)
[After Pasolini (Arabian Nights)], 2008
12 gouaches on paper mounted on canvas, 38.5 x 70 cm each
Secondo Pasolini (I Racconti di Canterbury)
[After Pasolini (The Canterbury Tales)], 2008
Brothers ennobles a family image by transposing it into
mosaic, endowing it with solidity and materiality. As
in a number of other works, Paci reworks an image,
whether personal or found, in order to express it
in another medium, a process which allows him to
appropriate a representation that otherwise eludes him.
Electric Blue, 2010
Video, colour, sound, 15’
After the collapse of the Albanian state in the 1990s,
a man tries to keep his family afloat economically by
making copies of porn films. After the upset of coming
across his son watching the movies, he decides to
reuse the video cassettes to record TV reports on
the war in Kosovo. A year later he realises that
the sequences he thought he had eliminated are
reappearing amidst the images of war.
room 4
12 paintings in tempera on paper mounted on canvas,
38 x 70 cm each
Albanian Stories, 1997
These three series of paintings made up of isolated
shots from The Trilogy of Life reflect Paci’s fascination
with Pier Paolo Pasolini and his search for images
that are both simple and expressive. The artist breaks
down the sequences, showing how Pasolini’s images
are rooted in art history, revealing the balance
Shortly after arriving in Italy, the exiled Paci filmed
his three-year-old daughter making up fairy stories
for her dolls in which the usual characters in such folk
narratives – a cow, a cat, a cockerel – come together
surprisingly with “soldiers” and members of the
Video, colour, sound, 7’08’’
The Column, 2013
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan, & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
“international intervention forces.” This naïve, child’s
vision conveys the particular yet universal character
of conflict and the challenges of immigration and
adapting to a new home.
Believe Me I Am an Artist, 2000
wedding held in the early 1990s. The hazy outline
of the faces translates the gradual fragmentation
and dilution of memory, while at the same time the
pictorial set-up tends to elevate and give mythic
resonance to these memories – a paradox which in
Paci’s case evokes the experience of the exile.
Video, colour, 6’54’’
Suspected of child abuse for having photographed his
daughters with a reproduction of his Albanian exit visa
on their backs, Paci was called into a police station
in Milan. This video replays the exchange that took
place with the police, as he tries to make them accept
that the photo is part of an artwork about expatriation.
This absurd ordeal is both a battle to fully establish his
status as an artist and a lesson in its fragility.
Home to Go [Un toit à soi], 2001
9 photographs, 103 x 103 cm each
In this series of photographs taken from a
performance, the artist appears in his underwear,
carrying on his back a fragment of a rooftop whose
V-shaped form brings to mind the wings of a bird. A
poignant metaphor for his personal experience as
a migrant, Home to Go also conveys its oppressive
weight. These images also evoke pictorial tradition by
reviving the themes of the Carrying of the Cross and
the fallen angel.
Piktori [Painter], 2002
Video, colour, sound, 3’27”
At the end of the dictatorship, small, semi-clandestine
kiosks began to sprout in Albanian towns bearing a
sign saying “Piktori” (painter). These artisans made
oil paintings and copies of artworks, but also turned
out all kinds of forged documents. Through its portrait
of one of these painters who has become a forger
in order to survive, this work is a meditation on the
artist’s role in society and the relation between
artisanship and artistic activity.
Turn On, 2004
Colour photograph, 145 x 190 cm
Turn On illustrates the exhausting daily wait of a
dozen unemployed people on a square in Shkodra,
hoping to find work. Icons of desperate social
conditions, these men nevertheless keep going,
hoping against hope for better days, waiting in the
flickering light of a hand-held bulb.
The Wedding, 2001
Klodi, 2005
20 gouaches on paper mounted on wood, 22 x 28 cm each
Video, colour, sound, 40’
On the twenty panels which make up this polyptych
are tempera reproductions of a traditional Albanese
In a story that veers between tragedy and absurdity,
an Albanian by the name of Klodi recounts the
room 5
room 4
room 1
room 2
room 3
entrance
details of his travels to Italy, Mexico and the
United States, impelled by political and economic
necessities. This reassembling of the parts of his
life, which connects with Paci’s own experience of
emigration, also stages the tension between the two
poles of tragedy and play.
sculptors transform it into a Roman column. The image
of this factory-boat illustrates an extremely condensed
economic strategy, in which delivery and production
are parallel processes. As a counterpart to the video
on show in the gallery, the column itself will be on
show in the Tuileries garden outside.
Passages, 2009
Acrylic and watercolour on plaster and terracotta,
30.5 x 23.5 x 7.6 cm
Passages, 2010
2 watercolours on paper, 100 x 70 cm each
The Passages series constitutes a collection of
“snapshots” taken from video or film sequences
ranging from TV news to archive footage of
traditional Albanian rituals. By pulling a scene out of
the flux of images, Paci tries to transfer it to a state
of stability, but without taking away its status as a
moving image, in order to keep it in a suspended
state. The time of the image is confounded with that
of the pictorial act, taking on a new dimension.
room 5
The Column, 2013
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related events
z Young Visitor’s Tuesday Tours
guided tour of the exhibition with the artist
and curator Marta Gili
Tuesday 26 February, 6pm
z Children First!
visit and workshop “Déplacements et transformations”
[Movements and Transformations]
Saturday 30 March and 27 April, 3.30pm
z talk on and around the exhibition
by Maurizio Lazzarato, sociologist and philosopher
Tuesday 23 April, 7pm
Video, colour, sound, 25’40’’
Produced with the participation of the Jeu de Paume
Made specially for the exhibition, The Column
articulates a reflection around the notion of
productive efficiency which becomes a pretext for a
poetic journey between East and West. This video
shows the career of a block of marble, from quarrying
in China to the maritime journey during which
z publication: Adrian Paci. Transit, texts by Adam
Budak, Edi Muka, Edna Moshenson, Emanuela
De Cecco, Éric de Chassey and an interview
with the artist by Marta Gili and Marie Fraser,
English/French, co-edition Jeu de Paume/Musée
d’art contemporain de Montréal/Mousse Publishing,
160 pages, 23.5 x 28.5 cm, 35 €
Jeu de Paume – Concorde
Jeu de Paume – extramural
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26 February – 12 May 2013
z Laure Albin Guillot (1879–1962),
the Question of Classicism
z Adrian Paci. Lives in Transit
z Satellite Programme 6, A Spoken Word
Exhibition. Suite for Exhibition(s) and Publication(s),
First Movement
23 October 2012 – March 2014
z Espace virtuel, Print Error: Publishing
in the Digital Age
forthcoming exhibitions
28 May – 1 September 2013
z Lorna Simpson
z Ahlam Shibli
z Satellite Programme 6, Suite for Exhibition(s)
and Publication(s), Third Movement
practical information
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acces via the Tuileries Gardens, Rue de Rivoli entrance
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+33 (0)1 47 03 12 50
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free admission to the exhibitions of the Satellite Programme
Young Visitor’s Tuesday: free admission for students
and visitors under 26 every last Tuesday of the month
from 5pm to 9pm
z guided tours and workshops: free admission
on presentation of the exhibition ticket of the day
Tours for individual visitors with guides
from the Jeu de Paume
Wednesday and Saturday at 12.30pm
Family Tours
Saturday at 3.30pm (except last Saturday of the month)
exhibition
24 November 2012 – 26 May 2013
z Lartigue, Wide-Eyed Wonder (1894–1986)
Château de Tours
25 Avenue André-Malraux, 37000 Tours
information
+33 (0)2 47 70 88 46
Tuesday to Friday 2pm–6pm
Saturday and Sunday 2.15pm–6pm
closed Monday
admission: €3; concessions: €1.50
guided tours: Saturday at 3pm
forthcoming exhibitions
21 March – 19 May 2013
z Satellite Programme 6, An Exhibition Without Texts.
Suite for Exhibition(s) and Publication(s), Second
Movement
Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz
16, Rue Charles-VII, 94130 Nogent-sur-Marne
www.maba.fnagp.fr
information
01 48 71 90 07
daily 12 h-18 h
closed Tuesday and public holidays
free admission
22 June – 3 November 2013
z Bruno Réquillart
Château de Tours
free admission
The Jeu de Paume is subsidized by
the Ministry of Culture and Communication.
It is supported by NEUFLIZE VIE, its principal partner.
by reservation on +33 (0)1 47 03 12 41/[email protected]
by reservation on +33 1 47 03 04 95/[email protected]
Young Visitors’ Tuesday Tours
every last Tuesday of the month at 6pm
z talks: free admission on a first-come, first‑served basis
Les Amis du Jeu de Paume contributes to its activities.
This exhibition has been co-produced by the Jeu de Paume,
Paris, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and
the PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan.
In partnership with:
PARISart
All photos: © Adrian Paci
© Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2013
Curators of the exhibition:
Adrian Paci
Marta Gili, Jeu de Paume, Paris
Marie Fraser, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
The Encounter, 2011
Children First!
visit and workshop for 7 to 11 year olds
every last Saturday of the month at 3.30pm
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan, & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
exhibitions