Prova

Prova

25th TiDF: Greek Premiere

The complexity of expressing the narrative and its inmost being in words is reflected in Paci’s video work Prova. In this film, he takes his earlier work Turn on (2004) as a starting point and works with the same protagonists, job-seekers from Shkodër in Albania. The backdrop is the concrete spine of a building that was never completed, in the middle stands a group of men who seem to be silently waiting. It is dark and the only source of light is the town’s street lamps. A whole night long, from sunset to sunrise, the protagonists look at each other, smile, or fall asleep on their feet. The perceived silence is interrupted from time to time by the repeated call of the words “Prova, prova...” (“Test, test...”) spoken by the men into the microphones they hold as if at a soundcheck… As soon as one of the men stops talking the narration is continued with glances, poses, and gestures. Their body language and their faces marked by life tell a story that words cannot express…

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.


Direction: Adrian Paci
Cinematography: Erfort Kuke
Editing: Erfort Kuke
Production: Kube Studios
Format: HD
Color: Color
Production Country: Albania
Production Year: 2019
Duration: 11'
Contact: Adrian Paci
Awards/Distinctions: Best Film by an Artist Award – St. Moritz Art Film Festival 2022

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)