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Adrian Paci: Centro di permanenza temporanea

Individuals in a line climbing an airplane entry staircase
Adrian Paci, Centro di permanenza temporanea, 2007 (still from video). Courtesy of the artist and kaufmann repetto Milano / New York and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

Centro di permanenza temporanea 

Adrian Paci

December 4, 2021 – February 13, 2022

Opening Reception: Sat. Dec 4 from 7 – 10pm

The central setting is an airport. A crowd of people are patiently moving towards an aircraft boarding staircase. They form a queue while we can observe planes taking off and landing in the background. Gradually, the stairs fill up with migrant men and women. They must squeeze together to make space for the people moving up. The people’s faces mirror their yearning for the fulfillment of a humane life without discrimination and cultural uprooting. The camera slowly circles the free-standing staircase. Where is this flight bound? In its title, the video Centro di Permanenza Temporanea (2007) refers to the Italian name for the temporary camps for illegal immigrants arriving weekly on the Italian coasts. 

ABOUT THE ARTIST


Adrian Paci (b. 1969) is known for his performance, and video works exploring globalization, migration, and exploitation issues in the 21st century. Trained as a realist painter in the Albanian capital Tirana, Paci began to work in photography and moving image. In the late 1990s when Albania underwent a dramatic phase of political turmoil, he fled to Milan. His films respond to collective histories of contemporary humankind, featuring the people whose stories they tell; they reveal how social and economic circumstances condition identity.

The artist’s work was part of the group exhibition at the Albanian Pavilion in the 1999 Venice Biennale. He also participated in the international exhibition of the 2005 Venice Biennale and represented Albania at the Venice Biennale of architecture in 2014. Adrian Paci’s works have been presented in numerous solo exhibitions internationally (selection): Kunsthalle Krems, Austria (2019); National Gallery of Art, Tirana (2019); Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2019); Museo Novecento, Florence (2018); MAXXI, Rome (2015); Musí­©e d’Art Contemporain, Montrí­©al (2014); Galeries Nationales du Jeu de Paume, Paris, (2013); Kunsthaus Zurich (2010), Kunstverein, Hannover (2008) or CCA, Tel Aviv (2008). Adrian Paci’s work is part of the following collections (selection): Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, New York; MoMA, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Fundacií­² La Caixa, Barcelona; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, among others.

Courtesy of the artist and kaufmann repetto Milano / New York and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich.