Believe Me I’m an Artist
Adrian Paci

Artist Talk

February 24, 2017 / 18:30

Join artist Adrian Paci to discuss his work in relation to Pera Museum’s exhibition Cold Front from the Balkans. Paci will show his video Piktori (included in the exhibition) as well as his other videos. The talk will focus on various themes in Paci’s works such as mobility, displacement, nostalgia and the artist’s place within the system.

In his video works motivated by the experience of exile, Paci emphasizes themes of separation and adaptation. Apart from his personal experience, the artist reveals how the question of identity is conditioned by social and economic circumstances. Moreover, Paci repeatedly employs some of the themes of the 21st century such as globalization, immigration, exploitation and the transformation of cultural identities. 

Albanian artist Adrian Paci was born in Shkoder in 1969. He received his training at the University of Arts in Tirana between 1987 and 1991. He taught art history classes in Shkoder during 1995-1997. Towards the end of the 1990s, Paci departed from realist painting in favor of photography and video. In that period, fleeing from the political events and uprisings in Albania, Paci moved to Milan. Throughout his career he held numerous solo shows in various international institutions such as Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea – PAC, Milan (2014); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2013); National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtina (2012); Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich (2010) and MoMA PS1, New York (2006). His work has also been featured in the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (2014); in the 48th and the 51st edition of the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia (1999 and 2005) and in the 15th Biennale of Sydney (2006). His works are in numerous public and private collections including Metropolitan Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; MAXXI, Rome; Moderna Museet, Stockholm and Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Paci teached at Accademia Carrara di Belle Ari Bergamo and at IUAV, Venice and currently teaches painting at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti NABA, Milan.

Free of admissions, drop in. This event will take place in the auditorium. The talk will be in English with simultaneous Turkish translation.

Temporary Exhibition

Cold Front from the Balkans

Pera Museum’s Cold Front from the Balkans exhibition curated by Ali Akay and Alenka Gregorič brought together contemporary artists from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.

Cold Front from the Balkans

At The Well

At The Well

Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz discovered the Orient in 1877, touring Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and the Crimea with Władysław Branicki. This experience made a profound impression on him, and he was to continuously revisit Eastern themes in his works for the rest of his life. 

The Welcoming of Venetian Balios to Ottoman Lands

The Welcoming of Venetian Balios to Ottoman Lands

The series of paintings depicting the audience ceremonies of European ambassadors hold a unique place among the works of Jean-Baptiste Vanmour of Valenciennes, who lived in İstanbul from 1699 until his death in 1737.

Jean-Michel Basquiat Look At Me!

Jean-Michel Basquiat Look At Me!

The exhibition “Look At Me! Portraits and Other Fictions from the ”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection” examined portraiture, one of the oldest artistic genres, through a significant number of works of our times. Paintings, photographs, sculptures and videos shaped a labyrinth of gazes that invite spectators to reflect themselves in the social mirror of portraits.