Les Echos! (Le Temple de la Gloire), 1983-85
GPO-0559
Golden pillow, gilt frames, rock
Pillow 12 x 58 x 43 cm, four frames: 41.5 x 49 cm, 43 x 55.5 cm, 44 x 54 cm, 49 x 70 cm, overall dimensions 23 x 70 x 70 cm
Goetz Collection, Munich
Le Temple de la Gloire is the general subtitle of a work conceived in 1983 and reformulated in overall nine variants (GPO-0490, GPO-0492, GPO-0493, GPO-0500, GPO-0508, GPO-0510, GPO-0526, GPO-0559, GPO-0808). A constant element is the golden pilllow, on which Paolini each time proposes an "offer", while the title quotes a phrase or a verse from the opera libretto of Le Temple de la Gloire (1745) by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Depending on the exhibition itself, the arrangement of the pillow also varies, at times integrated with complementary elements.
The work is based on the contrast between the eloquence of the elegant pillow, evoking a solemn ritual – in a dimension that is outside of the flow of time – and the ephemeral futility of the object offered, which is prosaic and inconsistent.
In this eighth variant the pillow is topped by a large rock, which holds down the "echoes" suggested by the four gilded frames, piled up on top of each other underneath the pillow.
Subtitle from the opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Le Temple de la Gloire, 1745 and title from the same source, Act I, Scene II, line 7.
| 1985 | Bari, Galleria Marilena Bonomo, Giulio Paolini. La pittura abbandonata, from 7 December. |
| 1988 | Pescara, Università Gabriele D’Annunzio, Dannunziana. Gabriele D’Annunzio nelle immagini europee contemporanee, 9 July - 21 August, col. repr. p. 45. |
| 1997-00 | Bremen, Neues Museum Weserburg, Arte Povera. Arbeiten und Dokumente aus der Sammlung Goetz 1958 bis heute, 22 June - 7 September, touring to: Nuremberg, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, 2 October - 7 December; Cologne, Kölnischer Kunstverein, 14 February - 26 April 1998; Vienna, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, 19 June - 30 August 1998; Göteborg (Sweden), Konsthallen, 19 September - 22 November 1998; Munich, Sammlung Goetz, 24 January - 20 May 2000 (part II), col. repr. p. 141 (work not installed by the artist), catalogue entry pp. 236-237. |
| 2003-04 | Bremen, Neues Museum Weserburg, Sammlung Goetz. Arte Povera und Mike Kelley, March 2003 - January 2004, no catalogue. |
| 2017 | New York, Hauser & Wirth, Arte Povera. Curated by Ingvild Goetz, 12 September - 28 October, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 261, col. repr. pp. 86, 87 (exhibition view). |
| • | Fra usikkerhet til samlet Kraft..., exhibition catalogue, Oslo, Kunstnernes Hus, 1986, vol. Giulio Paolini, repr. n. pag. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 1, repr. p. 54. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Nagoya, Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1987, repr. p. 35. |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 252. |
| • | Dannunziana. Gabriele D’Annunzio nelle immagini europee contemporanee, exhibition catalogue, Pescara, Università Gabriele D’Annunzio (Milan: Fabbri Editori, 1988), col. repr. p. 45. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (Milan-Rome: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore and De Luca Edizioni d’Arte, 1988), col. repr. no. 8. |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 46 (erroneously dated “1983”). |
| • | Arte Povera. Arbeiten und Dokumente aus der Sammlung Goetz 1958 bis heute (Munich: Kunstverlag Ingvild Goetz, 1997), col. repr. p. 141 (work not installed by the artist), catalogue entry pp. 236-237; English edition Munich 2001: col. repr. p. 141, catalogue entry p. 249. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 20 (erroneously dated “1983”). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 559 p. 569, col. repr. |
| • | Arte Povera. Der grosse Aufbruch, exhibition catalogue, Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2012), documented in the list of works from the collection p. 133, col. repr. (idem in the English edition). |
| • | Arte Povera Seen by Ingvild Goetz (New York: Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2017), col. repr. pp. 86, 87 (exhibition view New York 2017), caption p. 261. |
| • | G. Paolini, Eccomi. Qui dove sono (Turin: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, 2025), col. repr. p. 114. |
