Nuuseum Photographic Restoration – South Africa 2025
I first visited South Africa in 2023 for a summer school as part of my PhD, working between Cape Town and Johannesburg. In 2024, I returned for a unique mission with Memorist Heritage, supporting the society Nuuseum in Stellenbosch. The project involved launching a complete production workflow to identify, clean, and digitize an exceptional collection of 35,000 black-and-white glass plate photographs. On site, the work was full of surprises—diverse formats, unexpected technical constraints, and the constant need to adapt the workflow in real time. Each plate, dating from the late 19th century, contains invaluable historical information. Through careful restoration, digitization, and archiving, these images contribute to the reconstruction and preservation of South Africa’s historical memory.
2021 – 2025 – PhD Research – Visual-Narrative Practices in Contemporary Lebanese and Palestinian Art
My doctoral research investigated the visual-narrative practices of contemporary Lebanese and Palestinian artists, with a focus on how their work navigates conditions of betweenness between their homelands and Europe. Methodologically, the project was highly immersive and transnational: I traveled extensively, conducted numerous interviews with artists, curators, and art professionals across multiple countries, and visited a wide range of exhibitions. I also gathered materials from libraries in different nations, participated in international conferences, and engaged in ongoing discussions with academics and professionals in the art world. Throughout this process, I maintained the conviction that research, even when pursued individually, is always enriched through dialogue and collaboration rather than being purely solitary.
2023 – Visual arts in the Mediterranean today. History, politics and contemporary issues of the sea from the perspective of the artworld
In 2023, I designed and taught a seminar at the University of Cologne dedicated to exploring the Mediterranean as a heterogeneous and dynamic space a sea where multiple histories, languages, and cultures intersect. The course investigated how contemporary artists represent and question the Mediterranean today, focusing on ongoing dialogues, migrations, and transformations shaping the region. Each session was devoted to a specific city — Venice, Istanbul, Beirut, Jaffa, Cairo, Algiers, Naples, Athens, and Marseille — combining historical and political contextualization with the study of recent artistic practices emerging from these places. The seminar was based on my lectures and encouraged open discussion in addition to formal presentations. Here you find some examples of slide-presentations I used for the first three classes.
Conferences and Public Speaking
I actively engage in teaching and international conferences, and I genuinely enjoy public speaking and participating in academic debates. My experience spans teaching and cultural mediation at the Venice Biennale, and presenting at prestigious institutions including the University of Cologne, SOAS University of London, Birzeit University, and the Freie Universität Berlin. Files attached include three PDFs: one featuring a lecture I delivered at the American University of Beirut, and two from conference presentations held at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) event in Exeter and at Birzeit University.
2021 – Scandinavian Artists Living in Italy
While working at the Heike Arndt Gallery in Berlin, I led a research project with the potential for exhibition that traced the presence of Scandinavian artists in Italy during the modern and contemporary periods. This involved extensive research, interviews, and numerous discussions with artists, curators, and other professionals. In the photo: Casa Jorn in Albissola, a remarkable place that tells the story of the Danish artist Asger Jorn’s life and work in Italy.
Czech Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale – 2019
In 2023, I had the privilege of collaborating with the Czech Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, where a comprehensive retrospective of Stanislav Kolíbal was presented. Kolíbal, a pivotal figure in 20th-century Czech art, is renowned for his exploration of time and impermanence through a fusion of painting, drawing, sculpture, and architecture. The exhibition, titled Former Uncertain Indicated, was curated by Dieter Bogner and organized by the National Gallery Prague. I developed and led multilingual guided tours tailored to diverse international audiences, facilitating a deeper understanding of Kolíbal’s work and its thematic resonance.
Giacomo Paci 