All stepped up with nowhere to go… This perplexing image is taken from a video work by Albanian artist Adrian Paci titled Centro di Permanenza Temporanea or “Temporary Detention Centre”. In it, Paci shows a group of people climbing a moveable airport stairway, which grows more and more crowded as the camera pans out to reveal that it is in fact unattached to a plane. Offering a commentary on both our “need for incessant mobility” as well as the absurdly dubbed Italian detention centres for illegal immigrants and refugees that give the film its name, the work is a reflection on “the contradictory state of being permanently temporary” (Frieze).
