HARABEL Contemporary Art Platform is pleased to invite you to the inauguration of the artwork “The Calligraphy” by the artist Adrian Paci. The inauguration will take place at the square between the Ministry of Finances and the Ministry of Agriculture this Thursday, 19^th of November 2020, at 16:00 o’clock.

This oeuvre is the first of a series of artworks, by different artists, part of a HARABEL project, which aims to create a closer interaction between the public and contemporary thought, by stimulating an open dialogue between the urban space and art.

The concept of the artwork

“The Calligraphy” is an artwork that is intended to be placed in one of the public spaces of Tirana. There are two ministries that stand on each side of it, and in front there’s the Orthodox Cathedral, on the other side of the Boulevard stands the former National Theater. Meanwhile, it seems like the most intimate relationship that this artwork has is with a tree that stands in the middle of this small square. The artwork dates in 2020, but comes as an evidence of a reflection from a childhood experience.

A school bench, two bronze sheets resting on it. On the first sheet some notes written by a child, not words yet, but embryos of a future articulation. On the other sheet several phrases handwritten meticulously by a child: “Tirana is our capital”; “Our beloved leaders live in Tirana”; “Tirana is being becoming more beautiful day by day.” The year of this writing dates back to 1975, while the artwork comes today, as a response of a later reflection. The work explores the relationship of political power and language as a manipulation tool, but comes also as an artifact of the power language: codes that gain meaning through content, which itself will create diverse alternatives of discourse.

The two sheets on the bench stand as an evidence of two different moments in time; one before and one after. The uncodified signs of the first sheet are accompanied on the second sheet by the moment “after”, where the beautifully written phrases carry all the weight of the propagandistic distortion of what appears to us on the first sheet as the initial potential. The sheet with language as a territory of opportunity and the sheet with language as a propaganda territory stand on a children’s school bench. In the space between one sheet and the other the nuances and the overlaps can be numerous, just as the nuances between this little work and the surrounding city, with the numerous signs and expressions that are articulated daily on its urban space.

About the artist

Adrian Paci (born in 1969 in Shkoder, Albania) studied painting at the Academy of Art of Tirana. In 1997 he moved to Milan where he lives and works. The works of Adrian Paci grow out of a search for meaning guided by inner needs, as an active way of thinking about the contemporary world. They draw on a deep familiarity with art history, combining the observation of social dynamics in our time with an awareness of the symbolic depth of actions, and an interest in the interpretive potential of images. Key motifs in his oeuvre include travel, passage, waiting—which is above all a state of expectation—and ties to one’s time and place of origin, which are not dimensions to which anyone can return, but rather deep touch- stones that individuals must carry with them, to give even the most ordinary actions their full range of meaning.

Throughout his career he held numerous solo shows in various international institutions such as: Kunshalle Krems (2019); Museo Novecento, Florence (2017) MAC, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (2014); Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea – PAC, Milan (2014); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2013); Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich (2010); Bloomberg Space, London (2010); The Center for Contemporary Art – CCA, Tel Aviv (2009); Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund (2007); MoMA PS1, New York (2006) and Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2005). Amongst the various group shows, Adrian Paci’s 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 (respectively in 1999 and 2005); in the 15th Biennale of Sydney (2006); in the 15th Quadriennale di Roma, where he won first prize (2008); in the Biennale de Lyon (2009); and in the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2013).

Adrian Paci teaches painting and Visual Arts at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti NABA, Milan. He has been teaching art classes at Accademia Carrara di Belle Ari Bergamo, 2002-2006, IUAV, Venice 2003-2015 and has been giving lectures and workshops in many Universities, Art Academies and Institutions in different countries.