Adrian Paci:

Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse (Löwenbräu), Zurich

Albania is most probably the least known of all the Eastern European countries. Under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the Albanians lived under complete isolation until the fall of the iron curtain. Strong censorship made it also in the art world impossible to experience and follow the contemporary art scenes. Artists were put into prison for their search of new expressions until the late Seventies. The strength of catching up with the international art world after the fall of the wall was enormous. By now, there is a small number of internationally established artists. The ones who choose to live outside of Albania base the theme of their artwork not only on geographical distances and rupture, but also the social, cultural and mental changes within Albania.

 

Adrian Paci expresses himself within variety of media including painting, photography, video and sculpture. On show at the Galerie Peter Kilchmann are following new works: Home to go, 2002 (see invitation card) is a life size sculpture, copied of the artist‘s body and made out of resin. On his back, he carries an upside down roof, made with red tiles, as if it was a pair of wings; so it is no longer a roof for protection, for resting and staying, but it becomes an excellent metaphor for migration.

 

His series, entitled The Wedding, 2002 (acrylic on paper on canvas, each 50 x 40 cm) depicts moments of an Albanian wedding ceremony such as, the groom with friends, smiling and happy people, tables covered with food and bottles of wine, and men making music. In this series, Paci is interested in notions of personal and collective identities and in reconstructing them. There is bits of our personal stories and that is how the artist implies the (western) viewer‘s perception towards „the Other“ through subconscious reflection.

 

Another piece on show will be the video work A Real Game, 2000. The viewer can see moments of the artist‘s daughter Lea (now eight years old) dealing with her family‘s past, mainly with their immigration and assimilation in a foreign culture. This video culminates in a big scale photograph
(180 x 180 cm), entitled My Princess, 2002 where you see Lea, dressed as a princess in an Italian Palazzo of the 17th century.

 

Adrian Paci will also be represented with a video work in „Durchzug/Draft“ a group show in the Kunsthalle Zurich that will open the same night. Among others, Paci was included in the Biennales of Montréal, of Tirana and of Valencia (all in 2001), in Manifesta 3 in Ljubliana (2000) and in the Venice Biennale in 1999.