calendario eventi  :: 

X

2/4/2007

Adrian Paci

MK Gallery, Milton Keynes

Per speculum

Adrian Paci has become internationally recognised as an artist whose work often engages with real people in real-life situations to address the themes of exile, dislocation and loss. He will have his first solo exhibition in the UK at Milton Keynes Gallery this April, revealing the depth of his work, in film, sculpture, drawing and painting.

Adrian Paci was born in Albania, the country from which he sought exile in the mid 1990s. Since leaving and settling in Italy, his films have addressed the political and personal changes that have taken place in Albania and his own experiences. Many of his films have involved his family and friends, and men from the town in which he grew up, providing insight into the adjustments that they have had to make in coming to terms with their new situation. Art and life have until recently been interchangeable, as Paci has used his practice to understand his own role in society and what might be expected of him as an artist. Rather than providing the viewer with a nostalgic glance at the life that was left behind, Paci presents people that are trying to come to terms with how it is now.

per speculum, 2006 (commissioned and produced by Milton Keynes Gallery and Galleria Francesca Kaufmann, Milan) represents a marked shift from the preoccupations of Paci's earlier films. This time the film is not based on real circumstance, instead, its fictional, lyrical, slow moving plot brings together a number of strands that have surfaced in earlier films, including childhood, human knowledge and light. It is also Paci's first to be screened on 35mm. per speculum was filmed on location in the Northamptonshire countryside and sees a group of children playing with a mirror that is shattered into pieces which are then used to reflect the sun as they sit in the boughs of an enormous tree, so that it glistens with sparks of light. The shimmering light alludes to a passage from St Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians: 'videmus nunc per speculum in aenigmate tunc autem face ad faciem' (13:12) - At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known, which is also from where Paci's takes his title. As the light is reflected back onto the audience, Paci raises the notion of the possibilities and limits of knowledge and the way that we approach and use it.

Religion has been significant in other areas of Paci's practice: PilgrIMAGE, 2005 follows the story of a religious painting entitled The Virgin Mary of Shkodra that disappeared in Albania and reappeared in Rome in the 16th century. Dedicated to the filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, is the Pasolini Chapel, 2005, which will form part of this exhibition. Painted film stills (gouache on wood) from Pasolini's films The Gospel According to St Matthew, 1964, and Mamma Roma, 1962 adorn the inner and outer walls of a small hut placed in the middle of the gallery. The Gospel According to St Matthew was highly controversial and showed Christ as a young revolutionary while Mamma Roma was full of allusions to religious stories. The sepia-like paintings depict important silent scenes from each film, and this work, shown alongside paintings of scenes in Pasolini's The Decameron, 1971, bring together Paci's avid fascination with the relationship between painting, photography and the cinematic tradition.

It is Paci's practice to capture photographs from the films that he makes and exhibit them alongside the films. Again, the significance of light in Paci's work is brought into focus, as visitors will have the opportunity to see images from Turn On, 2004, which features a group of men from Paci's home town Shkodra, playing with the effects of light and dark, as they consider their changed lives. The images will be accompanied by photographs from other works, including images taken on the set of per speculum.

A full colour catalogue, with contributions from Christy Lange, Assistant Editor of Frieze and Michael Stanley, Director of Milton Keynes Gallery, as well as a range of events, will accompany this exhibition.

Events

Artist in Conversation
Thursday 5 April, 7-8pm, £5 (£3)
Adrian Paci in conversation about the themes and influences in his practice.

Look Who's Talking
Saturday 5 May, 1-1:30pm
See local children and their families who were involved in the making of Paci's per speculum interviewed in a short film about their experiences of working with Paci and their impressions of the completed film, followed by a short question and answer session.

In Context: Art and Film (2)
Wednesday 18 April, 7-8pm
In this panel discussion a new media curator, an advertising executive, a cameraman and a film critic will consider the crossovers between fine art film making and commercial film and advertising.

Preview: 3 April, 5:30-8pm

Milton Keynes Gallery
900 Midsummer Boulevard - Milton Keynes

stampa

permanent link