The work of Adrian Paci (born 1969 in Shkodra, Albania, lives and works in Milan) highlights one of the paradoxes of human intelligence, which consists in rendering reality through irreality. Often inspired by subjects close to him, by stories from his daily life, Adrian Paci makes them slide poetically towards a fiction, which, in turn, produces one or more broader realities.

His work is also characterized by its ability to put in tension what is conflicting and what is wonderful. With a certain romanticism, he is aware of the stakes that exist between contemporary artistic creation and possible forms of resistance.

In 1997, Adrian Paci fled the violent riots in Albania to take refuge with his family in Italy. Upon his arrival in this country, he temporarily abandoned painting and sculpture to adopt video, thus exploring new languages and cinematic means of expression. His experience of exile, the shock of separation and adaptation to a new place define the context of his first videos, through which he tries to find the roots of his past.

Gradually, Adrian Paci detaches himself from his personal experience to deal with collective history, in projects that focus on the consequences of conflicts and social revolutions, and reveal how identity is conditioned by the socio-economic context. Working with non-professional actors, men and women in their difficulties, he explores most of the existential and social problems of our time: migration, mobility, loss, displacement, globalization, cultural identity, nostalgia, memory...

After having represented his country at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and having been exhibited at MoMa PS1 in New York in 2005, his work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions: Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Kunstverein in Hanover, Tel Aviv Contemporary Art Center, Bloomberg Space in London and Kunsthaus in Zurich... He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions: Manifest3 in Ljubljana (2000), Venice Biennale (2005), Tate Modern in London (2008), Maxxi in Rome, Lyon and Havana Biennales (2011).