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Dove, 1967

Archive number

GPO-0116

English title

Where

Technique

Plexiglas

Dimensions

Four parts 34 x 34 x 1 cm, overall dimensions variable

Collection

Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin

Acquisitions and loans

Gift of the artist, 25 October 2012, archive no. GPO-0116

Display

The four letters must be placed on the floor, more or less in a circle, so that the word “Dove” (or ”Vedo” or ”Devo”) is legible at a glance.

Description

The work consists of four plexiglas elements in the shape of the letters “D”, “O”, “V”, “E”, to be place on the ground, in a circle. “Dove”[Where] is at the same time an anagram for “vedo”[I see] and “devo”[I must], the original title of the work, later replaced with the current one.
Akin to Qui (GPO-0117) and Lo spazio (GPO-0120), the word "becomes the image of itself: that is, it tends to identify the spatial metric of its meaning".1
The work was replicated in 1985 in a larger version (GPO-0547).

1 G. Paolini, "Note di lavoro", in the version published in G. Paolini, Idem (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1975), p. 43, new edition (Milan: Electa, 2023), p. 69.

Exhibitions

1967	Turin, Teatro Stabile, Sala delle Colonne, Proposte 1. Giulio Paolini, 2 March, no catalogue, cited as “Devo” on the invitation card; circular installation around a column.
1967	Venice, Galleria del Leone, Giulio Paolini, from 7 August, cited in the checklist of exhibited works (as “Devo”), not repr.
1984-85	Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, Ouverture, 19 December 1984 - February 1985, not repr.; installation with letters oriented in various ways and juxtaposed to form a square area inside a Plexiglas case.
2003	Milan, Fondazione Prada, Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, 29 October - 18 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 401, repr. p. 251; circular installation.

Bibliography

•	G. Celant, “Arte Povera”, in Arte Povera, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Galleria de’ Foscherari, 1968, p. 6, not repr.; republished in Id., Arte Povera. Storie e protagonisti / Art Povera. Histories and protagonists (Milan: Electa, 1985), p. 54, not repr.
•	Giulio Paolini (Parma: Università di Parma, Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione, 1976), repr. no. 89.
•	Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), repr. p. 212 (with incorrect indication of the installation’s location; the photograph has been taken at the artist’s studio).
•	B. Corà, “Tutto qui (o la preesistenza dell’opera in Giulio Paolini)”, in Giulio Paolini. "Tutto qui", exhibition catalogue, Ravenna, Pinacoteca Comunale, Loggetta Lombardesca (Ravenna: Agenzia Editoriale Essegi, 1985), p. 17, repr. no. 8.
•	Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 3, repr. p. 24.
•	G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 69.
•	F. Poli, “Note di lettura”, in Id., Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), pp. 27-28, 40, not repr.; republished in Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), pp. 45, 65, not repr.
•	Denk-Bilder. Kunst der Gegenwart 1960-1990, exhibition catalogue, Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, 1991, repr. p. 39 (with incorrect caption referred to the version of Dove made in 1985).
•	A. Zevi, “Three Artistic Generations in Contemporary Italy” in Three Artistic Generations in Contemporary Italy, exhibition catalogue, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, 1993, pp. 86, 84 (with incorrect information about the exhibition of the work in Genoa in 1967), repr. p. 87.
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 116 p. 142, repr.
•	F. Tedeschi, “Arte povera e concettuale. Coincidenze e specificità”, in Titolo 22, no. 62 (Perugia), Spring-Summer, 2011, p. 7, repr. (with incorrect dimensions).
•	F. Gallo, “Ombre e riflessi del corpo nel lavoro di Ketty La Rocca”, in Ketty La Rocca. Nuovi studi, edited by Id. (Milan: Postmedia Books, 2015), p. 42, repr.
•	R. Cuomo, Giulio Paolini. Lo spazio, 1967. In collezione 4 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2016), pp. 14, 16, 18, repr. p. 15.
•	F. Tedeschi, Luoghi di transizione. Forme e immagini di “passaggio” fra arte e architettura (Brescia: Edizioni Morcelliana, 2020), p. 148, not repr.
•	V. Fumagalli, Sguardo e memoria. Le corrispondenze tra Giulio Paolini e “Le Cygne” di Charles Baudelaire (Rome: Fondazione Mario Luzi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 149.