Albanian artist Adrian Paci’s films and sculptures are deeply personal testimonies to topical and burning issues. His exhibition at Bildmuseet is based on his own experience of the mass exodus from Albania to Italy and its consequences. These are strong, moving works about identity, rootlessness and borders.
Water Wall is a new work that has been created for Bildmuseet. It consists of a video film projected onto a 4 x 3 metre wall of white plastic water containers, filled with water from the Adriatic Sea. The film shows the artist, on a motorboat, filling these plastic containers with water from the Strait of Otranto, which separates Albania and Italy. His actions attract the attention of the Italian police.
In the film Albanian Stories, a young girl tells stories about contemporary abuse and oppression in the form of a fairytale. The short film features both fiction and documentary elements.
The video installation Apparizione consists of two films projected onto opposite walls. The work depicts real and fictional interactions between the artist’s three-year-old daughter and her relatives. One film shows his daughter in exile in Milan. She sings the first verse of a children’s song, while the other film shows how her relatives back in Tirana respond by singing the next verse.
Adrian Paci (born 1969) lives and works in Milan. He completed an IASPIS scholarship in Umeå in February 2001.
