L’ora X, 2017

This print is characterized by a drawing of the author's right hand, intent on using a pencil tip to mark the centre of the face of the wristwatch on his other hand.1 The circular face inscribes four red letters, which clockwise spell out the word “L’ora” (the hour). A second, red pencil is turned so that it is specular to the first one; the two tips meet, emphasized in red, and together they create an “X”. A red circle emphasizes the roundness of the watch, accentuating the optical and semantic fulcrum of the image.
The title alludes to the unpredictable instant – “l’ora X” (the X hour),2 constantly announced and at the same time postponed by Paolini in his works – in which the marks made by the pencil on the sheet become a drawing. That is to say: the enigmatic moment when an image is created and is revealed to the gaze. An unknown image, which stands for all possible images: hence, the edition size of twelve, equal to the hours of the day and on the face of a clock, symbolically intended as the maximum temporal range, the absolute number, the all-encompassing summa.
The original collage from which the print originates is documented in the online Catalogue Raisonné of the works on paper at number GPC-2128.

1 The drawing was conceived in 1990 for the print (GPE-0075), while the motif of the hand drawing dates to Paolini's first print (GPE-0001).
2 The expression “L’ora X” appeared for the first time in the project for the solo show at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, in 2004 (Giulio Paolini. L’ora X, 28 March - 30 May), reenacted differently at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, in 2009 (L’Ora X. Né prima né dopo, 29 November 2009 - 18 January 2010), cf. the respective catalogues with a text by the author about the exhibition.