Adrian Paci - Jeu de Paume
Adrian Paci - Jeu de Paume
Adrian Paci - Jeu de Paume
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
# 101<br />
<strong>Adrian</strong> <strong>Paci</strong><br />
Lives in Transit<br />
Concor<strong>de</strong><br />
26 February – 12 May 2013
Home to Go (<strong>de</strong>tail), 2001<br />
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich<br />
Centro di Permanenza temporanea, 2007<br />
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan, & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich<br />
While the context of his first works was <strong>de</strong>fined by<br />
the experience of exile, <strong>Adrian</strong> <strong>Paci</strong> (born in Shkodra,<br />
Albania, in 1969) has gradually wi<strong>de</strong>ned his scope<br />
from the personal to the collective. His projects<br />
focus on the consequences of societal conflicts and<br />
upheavals, showing the <strong>de</strong>gree to which i<strong>de</strong>ntity is<br />
shaped by socio-economic context. His works explore<br />
the feeling of loss, the assertion of i<strong>de</strong>ntity, and the<br />
mutability and displacement of human i<strong>de</strong>ntity. He<br />
draws his illustrations of the human condition from<br />
episo<strong>de</strong>s in everyday life, shifting these towards<br />
fiction and poetry by playing on the tensions between<br />
their dramatic and magical aspects. For his first<br />
retrospective in France, <strong>Paci</strong> is presenting a highly<br />
diverse selection of vi<strong>de</strong>os, installations, paintings,<br />
photographs and sculptures ma<strong>de</strong> since 1997.<br />
Illustrating his movements between different mediums,<br />
the exhibition also highlights the bold ways in which<br />
he revisits the history of art and cinema.<br />
room 1<br />
The Encounter, 2011<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, sound, 22’<br />
Outsi<strong>de</strong> the church of San Bartolomeo <strong>de</strong> Scicli in<br />
Noto (Sicily), people in their hundreds line up to shake<br />
hands with <strong>Adrian</strong> <strong>Paci</strong>. This everyday gesture, a<br />
sign of conviviality and sharing, is repeated in ritual<br />
fashion while the mysterious procession creates a<br />
sense of both union and tension with the local urban<br />
setting, now the theatre for this encounter between the<br />
artist and a mixed mass of individuals, as he exposes<br />
his i<strong>de</strong>ntity in relation to a specific community.<br />
room 2<br />
Vajtojca [Mourner], 2002<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, sound, 9’10’’<br />
Vajtojca is like a kind of rite of passage. <strong>Adrian</strong> <strong>Paci</strong><br />
stages his own funeral wake, held in accordance with<br />
the Albanian tradition. Sitting besi<strong>de</strong> his <strong>de</strong>athbed a<br />
mourner sings a compelling complaint – after which<br />
the artist rises from the bed, as if resurrected.<br />
Centro di Permanenza temporanea<br />
[Centre of Temporary Resi<strong>de</strong>nce], 2007<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, sound, 5’30’’<br />
A silent cortege of passengers shuffles towards<br />
a flight of boarding stairs; soon, all the steps are<br />
filled. The camera pores slowly over the grave<br />
faces of these men and women queuing to travel<br />
to an unknown <strong>de</strong>stination. The scene becomes<br />
confusing, however, when the frame wi<strong>de</strong>ns to<br />
show that there is no aeroplane at the end of these<br />
stairs. The limbo of these boar<strong>de</strong>rs symbolises<br />
the paradoxical state of permanent transition that<br />
is the daily lot of migrants.<br />
The Last Gestures, 2009<br />
4 channel vi<strong>de</strong>o installation, couleur, dimensions variable<br />
Forming a fragmented scenario around preparations<br />
for a traditional wedding, The Last Gestures<br />
captures the silent, ritualised exchanges between<br />
the future bri<strong>de</strong> and her family, resonant with the<br />
sorrow of their future separation. The characters’<br />
awareness that they are being watched makes<br />
them the conscious actors in a codified drama.
The Last Gestures, 2009<br />
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan, & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich<br />
Brothers, 2010<br />
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan<br />
Amplifying the symbolism of the actions and<br />
expressions, the slowing of the scenes gives<br />
the vi<strong>de</strong>o a pictorial quality.<br />
Insi<strong>de</strong> the Circle, 2011<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, sound, 6’33’’<br />
This work explores the complex dynamic between<br />
man and animal, as illustrated in the interaction<br />
between a trainer and a horse. In the bareness of<br />
their actions, which mix in a single expressive co<strong>de</strong>,<br />
they seem to be reviving a primitive bond, oblivious to<br />
the distinction between species. Their relation unfolds<br />
in a choreographed role-play in which the lea<strong>de</strong>r<br />
– the woman – finally attains self-<strong>de</strong>finition.<br />
room 3<br />
Secondo Pasolini (Decameron)<br />
[After Pasolini (Decameron)], 2006<br />
12 gouaches on paper mounted on canvas, 38 x 70 cm each<br />
Secondo Pasolini (Il Fiore <strong>de</strong>lle Mille e una Notte)<br />
[After Pasolini (Arabian Nights)], 2008<br />
12 gouaches on paper mounted on canvas, 38.5 x 70 cm each<br />
Secondo Pasolini (I Racconti di Canterbury)<br />
[After Pasolini (The Canterbury Tales)], 2008<br />
12 paintings in tempera on paper mounted on canvas,<br />
38 x 70 cm each<br />
These three series of paintings ma<strong>de</strong> up of isolated<br />
shots from The Trilogy of Life reflect <strong>Paci</strong>’s fascination<br />
with Pier Paolo Pasolini and his search for images<br />
that are both simple and expressive. The artist breaks<br />
down the sequences, showing how Pasolini’s images<br />
are rooted in art history, revealing the balance<br />
that exists both in the filmmaker’s work and his own<br />
between time and image, movement and duration,<br />
icon and realism.<br />
Brothers, 2010<br />
Marble mosaic on resin panel and wood, 160 x 190 x 25 cm<br />
Brothers ennobles a family image by transposing it into<br />
mosaic, endowing it with solidity and materiality. As<br />
in a number of other works, <strong>Paci</strong> reworks an image,<br />
whether personal or found, in or<strong>de</strong>r to express it<br />
in another medium, a process which allows him to<br />
appropriate a representation that otherwise elu<strong>de</strong>s him.<br />
Electric Blue, 2010<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, sound, 15’<br />
After the collapse of the Albanian state in the 1990s,<br />
a man tries to keep his family afloat economically by<br />
making copies of porn films. After the upset of coming<br />
across his son watching the movies, he <strong>de</strong>ci<strong>de</strong>s to<br />
reuse the vi<strong>de</strong>o cassettes to record TV reports on<br />
the war in Kosovo. A year later he realises that<br />
the sequences he thought he had eliminated are<br />
reappearing amidst the images of war.<br />
room 4<br />
Albanian Stories, 1997<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, sound, 7’08’’<br />
Shortly after arriving in Italy, the exiled <strong>Paci</strong> filmed<br />
his three-year-old daughter making up fairy stories<br />
for her dolls in which the usual characters in such folk<br />
narratives – a cow, a cat, a cockerel – come together<br />
surprisingly with “soldiers” and members of the
The Column, 2013<br />
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan, & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich<br />
“international intervention forces.” This naïve, child’s<br />
vision conveys the particular yet universal character<br />
of conflict and the challenges of immigration and<br />
adapting to a new home.<br />
Believe Me I Am an Artist, 2000<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, 6’54’’<br />
Suspected of child abuse for having photographed his<br />
daughters with a reproduction of his Albanian exit visa<br />
on their backs, <strong>Paci</strong> was called into a police station<br />
in Milan. This vi<strong>de</strong>o replays the exchange that took<br />
place with the police, as he tries to make them accept<br />
that the photo is part of an artwork about expatriation.<br />
This absurd or<strong>de</strong>al is both a battle to fully establish his<br />
status as an artist and a lesson in its fragility.<br />
Home to Go [Un toit à soi], 2001<br />
9 photographs, 103 x 103 cm each<br />
In this series of photographs taken from a<br />
performance, the artist appears in his un<strong>de</strong>rwear,<br />
carrying on his back a fragment of a rooftop whose<br />
V-shaped form brings to mind the wings of a bird. A<br />
poignant metaphor for his personal experience as<br />
a migrant, Home to Go also conveys its oppressive<br />
weight. These images also evoke pictorial tradition by<br />
reviving the themes of the Carrying of the Cross and<br />
the fallen angel.<br />
The Wedding, 2001<br />
20 gouaches on paper mounted on wood, 22 x 28 cm each<br />
On the twenty panels which make up this polyptych<br />
are tempera reproductions of a traditional Albanese<br />
wedding held in the early 1990s. The hazy outline<br />
of the faces translates the gradual fragmentation<br />
and dilution of memory, while at the same time the<br />
pictorial set-up tends to elevate and give mythic<br />
resonance to these memories – a paradox which in<br />
<strong>Paci</strong>’s case evokes the experience of the exile.<br />
Piktori [Painter], 2002<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, sound, 3’27”<br />
At the end of the dictatorship, small, semi-clan<strong>de</strong>stine<br />
kiosks began to sprout in Albanian towns bearing a<br />
sign saying “Piktori” (painter). These artisans ma<strong>de</strong><br />
oil paintings and copies of artworks, but also turned<br />
out all kinds of forged documents. Through its portrait<br />
of one of these painters who has become a forger<br />
in or<strong>de</strong>r to survive, this work is a meditation on the<br />
artist’s role in society and the relation between<br />
artisanship and artistic activity.<br />
Turn On, 2004<br />
Colour photograph, 145 x 190 cm<br />
Turn On illustrates the exhausting daily wait of a<br />
dozen unemployed people on a square in Shkodra,<br />
hoping to find work. Icons of <strong>de</strong>sperate social<br />
conditions, these men nevertheless keep going,<br />
hoping against hope for better days, waiting in the<br />
flickering light of a hand-held bulb.<br />
Klodi, 2005<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, sound, 40’<br />
In a story that veers between tragedy and absurdity,<br />
an Albanian by the name of Klodi recounts the
oom 5 room 4 room 1 room 2 room 3<br />
entrance<br />
<strong>de</strong>tails of his travels to Italy, Mexico and the<br />
United States, impelled by political and economic<br />
necessities. This reassembling of the parts of his<br />
life, which connects with <strong>Paci</strong>’s own experience of<br />
emigration, also stages the tension between the two<br />
poles of tragedy and play.<br />
Passages, 2009<br />
Acrylic and watercolour on plaster and terracotta,<br />
30.5 x 23.5 x 7.6 cm<br />
Passages, 2010<br />
2 watercolours on paper, 100 x 70 cm each<br />
The Passages series constitutes a collection of<br />
“snapshots” taken from vi<strong>de</strong>o or film sequences<br />
ranging from TV news to archive footage of<br />
traditional Albanian rituals. By pulling a scene out of<br />
the flux of images, <strong>Paci</strong> tries to transfer it to a state<br />
of stability, but without taking away its status as a<br />
moving image, in or<strong>de</strong>r to keep it in a suspen<strong>de</strong>d<br />
state. The time of the image is confoun<strong>de</strong>d with that<br />
of the pictorial act, taking on a new dimension.<br />
room 5<br />
The Column, 2013<br />
Vi<strong>de</strong>o, colour, sound, 25’40’’<br />
Produced with the participation of the <strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong><br />
Ma<strong>de</strong> specially for the exhibition, The Column<br />
articulates a reflection around the notion of<br />
productive efficiency which becomes a pretext for a<br />
poetic journey between East and West. This vi<strong>de</strong>o<br />
shows the career of a block of marble, from quarrying<br />
in China to the maritime journey during which<br />
sculptors transform it into a Roman column. The image<br />
of this factory-boat illustrates an extremely con<strong>de</strong>nsed<br />
economic strategy, in which <strong>de</strong>livery and production<br />
are parallel processes. As a counterpart to the vi<strong>de</strong>o<br />
on show in the gallery, the column itself will be on<br />
show in the Tuileries gar<strong>de</strong>n outsi<strong>de</strong>.<br />
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––<br />
related events<br />
z Young Visitor’s Tuesday Tours<br />
gui<strong>de</strong>d tour of the exhibition with the artist<br />
and curator Marta Gili<br />
Tuesday 26 February, 6pm<br />
z Children First!<br />
visit and workshop “Déplacements et transformations”<br />
[Movements and Transformations]<br />
Saturday 30 March and 27 April, 3.30pm<br />
z talk on and around the exhibition<br />
by Maurizio Lazzarato, sociologist and philosopher<br />
Tuesday 23 April, 7pm<br />
z publication: <strong>Adrian</strong> <strong>Paci</strong>. Transit, texts by Adam<br />
Budak, Edi Muka, Edna Moshenson, Emanuela<br />
De Cecco, Éric <strong>de</strong> Chassey and an interview<br />
with the artist by Marta Gili and Marie Fraser,<br />
English/French, co-edition <strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong>/Musée<br />
d’art contemporain <strong>de</strong> Montréal/Mousse Publishing,<br />
160 pages, 23.5 x 28.5 cm, 35 €
<strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong> – Concor<strong>de</strong><br />
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––<br />
exhibitions<br />
26 February – 12 May 2013<br />
z Laure Albin Guillot (1879–1962),<br />
the Question of Classicism<br />
z <strong>Adrian</strong> <strong>Paci</strong>. Lives in Transit<br />
z Satellite Programme 6, A Spoken Word<br />
Exhibition. Suite for Exhibition(s) and Publication(s),<br />
First Movement<br />
23 October 2012 – March 2014<br />
z Espace virtuel, Print Error: Publishing<br />
in the Digital Age<br />
forthcoming exhibitions<br />
28 May – 1 September 2013<br />
z Lorna Simpson<br />
z Ahlam Shibli<br />
z Satellite Programme 6, Suite for Exhibition(s)<br />
and Publication(s), Third Movement<br />
practical information<br />
1, Place <strong>de</strong> la Concor<strong>de</strong>, 75008 Paris<br />
acces via the Tuileries Gar<strong>de</strong>ns, Rue <strong>de</strong> Rivoli entrance<br />
www.jeu<strong>de</strong>paume.org<br />
http://lemagazine.jeu<strong>de</strong>paume.org<br />
information +33 (0)1 47 03 12 50<br />
Tuesday (last opening) 11am–9pm<br />
Wednesday to Sunday 11am–7pm<br />
closed Monday and 1 May<br />
z exhibitions: admission: €8.50; concessions: €5.50<br />
free admission to the exhibitions of the Satellite Programme<br />
Young Visitor’s Tuesday: free admission for stu<strong>de</strong>nts<br />
and visitors un<strong>de</strong>r 26 every last Tuesday of the month<br />
from 5pm to 9pm<br />
z gui<strong>de</strong>d tours and workshops: free admission<br />
on presentation of the exhibition ticket of the day<br />
Tours for individual visitors with gui<strong>de</strong>s<br />
from the <strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong><br />
Wednesday and Saturday at 12.30pm<br />
Family Tours<br />
Saturday at 3.30pm (except last Saturday of the month)<br />
by reservation on +33 (0)1 47 03 12 41/ren<strong>de</strong>zvousenfamille@jeu<strong>de</strong>paume.org<br />
Children First!<br />
visit and workshop for 7 to 11 year olds<br />
every last Saturday of the month at 3.30pm<br />
by reservation on +33 1 47 03 04 95/lesenfantsdabord@jeu<strong>de</strong>paume.org<br />
Young Visitors’ Tuesday Tours<br />
every last Tuesday of the month at 6pm<br />
z talks: free admission on a first-come, first‐served basis<br />
<strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong> – extramural<br />
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––<br />
exhibition<br />
24 November 2012 – 26 May 2013<br />
z Lartigue, Wi<strong>de</strong>-Eyed Won<strong>de</strong>r (1894–1986)<br />
Château <strong>de</strong> Tours<br />
25 Avenue André-Malraux, 37000 Tours<br />
information +33 (0)2 47 70 88 46<br />
Tuesday to Friday<br />
2pm–6pm<br />
Saturday and Sunday 2.15pm–6pm<br />
closed Monday<br />
admission: €3; concessions: €1.50<br />
gui<strong>de</strong>d tours: Saturday at 3pm<br />
forthcoming exhibitions<br />
21 March – 19 May 2013<br />
z Satellite Programme 6, An Exhibition Without Texts.<br />
Suite for Exhibition(s) and Publication(s), Second<br />
Movement<br />
Maison d’Art Bernard Anthonioz<br />
16, Rue Charles-VII, 94130 Nogent-sur-Marne<br />
www.maba.fnagp.fr<br />
information 01 48 71 90 07<br />
daily<br />
12 h-18 h<br />
closed Tuesday and public holidays<br />
free admission<br />
22 June – 3 November 2013<br />
z Bruno Réquillart<br />
Château <strong>de</strong> Tours<br />
free admission<br />
The <strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong> is subsidized by<br />
the Ministry of Culture and Communication.<br />
It is supported by NEUFLIZE VIE, its principal partner.<br />
Les Amis du <strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong> contributes to its activities.<br />
This exhibition has been co-produced by the <strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong>,<br />
Paris, the Musée d’art contemporain <strong>de</strong> Montréal and<br />
the PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan.<br />
In partnership with:<br />
PARIS art<br />
The Encounter, 2011<br />
Courtesy kaufmann repetto, Milan, & Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich<br />
All photos: © <strong>Adrian</strong> <strong>Paci</strong><br />
© <strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong>, Paris, 2013<br />
Curators of the exhibition:<br />
<strong>Adrian</strong> <strong>Paci</strong><br />
Marta Gili, <strong>Jeu</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Paume</strong>, Paris<br />
Marie Fraser, Musée d’art contemporain <strong>de</strong> Montréal