Nullus enim locus sine genio est, 1969
GPO-0187
Paint on cotton fabric
Banner 64 x 410 cm, overall dimensions variable
Collection of the artist
The work was raised as a banner in an space outdoors only occasionally while it was being made. Since the 2000s, the artist has envisioned its installation exclusively indoors. The fabric is hung from a wall, with one end at a height of approximately 180-200 cm, and the other end falling to the ground freely, leaving only some of the writing visible.
The well-known Latin phrase (No place is without a genius) – taken from the comment by Servius to Book V of the Aeneid of Virgil (5, 95) – is painted in copper-coloured metallic paint on a cloth banner.
The work is part of a group of works made during the same year (GPO-0183, GPO-0184, GPO-0185, GPO-0187) characterized by enigmatic Latin quotations transcribed on banners or on metal plaques, based on a paradox. As the artist explains, the Latin phrases "recited and divulged with the emphasis of a banner or a sign" actually refer "to an order of private contemplation". “The transcriptions are pronouncements, professions of faith, but also the awareness of their unrepeatability, confined as they are in an ancient language, distant from all possible verification or reappropriation”,1 Paolini remarks.
The work was raised as a banner in an space outdoors only occasionally while it was being made. Since the 2000s, the artist has envisioned its installation exclusively indoors. The fabric is hung from a wall with one end, and the other end falling to the ground freely, leaving only some of the writing visible.
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 183 p. 198.
Quotation from Servius, commentary on Virgil’s Aeneid, Book V (5, 95).
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 183 p. 198. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with A. Madesani, in Giulio Paolini. Teoria delle apparenze. Opere 1969-2015, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Galleria Fumagalli, 2018, p. 11. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 187 p. 201, col. repr. (installation view of the work in the artist’s studio). |
| • | S. Smets, “Looking at Latin 1911–1965–2019”, in Jolcel 8 (Ghent), biannual online journal, 2023, pp. 115-117, not repr. |
43 x 41 cm
Private collection, courtesy Fondazione Marconi, Milan
32 x 26 cm
Lorenzo and Marilena Bonomo Collection
34 x 23.3 cm
Collection of the artist
36 x 19 cm
Collection of the artist
Two parts 40.3 x 53.1 cm each, overall dimensions 40.3 x 108.2 cm
Private collection, Milan
33.5 x 50 cm
Collection of the artist
33.5 x 25.5 cm
Collection of the artist
Two parts 42 x 55 cm each, overall dimensions 42 x 112 cm
Collection of the artist
65 x 47 cm
Private collection, Turin
55.7 x 44 cm
Private collection
Present whereabouts unknown
65 x 50 cm
Private collection, St. Gallen (Switzerland)
