This video which deals with themes of reflection on death and its possible aesthetic interpretation is entitled Vajtojca, the weeper. It documents and testifies the attempt of the artist to construct a live dialogue with the inevitable presence of death. Adrian Paci has drawn inspiration from an ancient custom of the Balcanic regions that is still in use in his village of birth which sees in the mourning of the dead a profession with very precise ritual norms. The video contemplates the co-existence of aesthetic thought and death, of a possible ʻhappy endingʼ and a tragic inevitable one. It is his own death that Adrian Paci sets up and for the occasion asks a woman to cry over his body. The professional mourner weeps for the dead for several minutes over the immobile artist who is forced to sustain the pain of his own death. When the rite draws to a close, the story begins anew and as if it were a miracle one is confronted with a resurrection. Adrian Paci rises and thanks the weeper with his own tears and leaves.
Vajtojca
Vajtojca
25th TiDF: Greek Premiere
Screening Schedule
No physical screenings scheduled. |
- Direction: Adrian Paci
- Production: kaufmann repetto
- Format: HD
- Color: Color
- Production Country: Albania
- Production Year: 2002
- Duration: 10'
- Contact: Adrian Paci
Adrian Paci
Adrian Paci (b, 1969) in Shkoder, is an Albanian artist who currently lives and works in Milano. From 1987 to 1991 he attended the Akademia e Arteve in Tirana, Albania. He lectured in art history and aesthetics in Shkodër from 1995 until 1997, at which time he left his home country for Milan, escaping the violence of the armed uprising that roiled Albania that year. Paci’s position as an exile holds a central place in his oeuvre. His work frequently addresses themes of geographical separation, nostalgia, and memory, and conveys a keen sense of the mutability of life and art. Characterized by a fluid interplay between performance and body art, his videos frequently focus on quotidian existence and feature members of his own family. In 1999, Paci was among the first Albanian artists to represent their country at the Venice Biennale. His first major solo exhibition took place the following year at MoMA PS1 in New York. Since 2003 he has been a lecturer in visual arts at the Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti in Bergamo and the Università IUAV in Venice. He is the founder of ART HOUSE in Shkodra, Albania.
Filmography
1997 Albanian Stories (short)
2000 Believe me I am an artist (short)
2002 Piktori (short)
2002 Vajtojca (short)
2004 Turn on (short)
2006 Per Speculum (short)
2007 Centro di Permanenza temporanea (short)
2010 Electric Blue (short)
2011 The Encounter (short)
2013 The Column (short)
2015 The Guardians (short)
2015 Sue proprie mani (short)
2017 Rasha (short)
2017 Interregnum (short)
2017 Di queste luci si servirà la note (short)
2019 Broken Words (short)
2019 Prova (short)
2020 Vedo rosso (short)
2021 U’ncuontru (short)
2021 The Wanderers (short)
2000 Believe me I am an artist (short)
2002 Piktori (short)
2002 Vajtojca (short)
2004 Turn on (short)
2006 Per Speculum (short)
2007 Centro di Permanenza temporanea (short)
2010 Electric Blue (short)
2011 The Encounter (short)
2013 The Column (short)
2015 The Guardians (short)
2015 Sue proprie mani (short)
2017 Rasha (short)
2017 Interregnum (short)
2017 Di queste luci si servirà la note (short)
2019 Broken Words (short)
2019 Prova (short)
2020 Vedo rosso (short)
2021 U’ncuontru (short)
2021 The Wanderers (short)
