Diorama (II), 1985-86

Eight canvases shaped like a circular sector,1 each of which with a shaped paper fragment, are distributed in random order as if they came from a unit evoked by the circle drawn on the wall at the centre. It appears to be held by the hand reproduced in the fragment applied to the canvas at a tangent to the circle and slightly staggered with respect to the drawing. The ensemble is inscribed in the lines of sight of two eyes, one of which up, the other down, cut out from the reproductions of an ancient drawing and applied to canvases situated at the left and right ends.
The title, which was already used in a work from 1979 (GPO-0407), recalls the setting that, through a series of special effects, light, and perspective, generates the illusion of a three-dimensional reality, in this case referred to the vision of a painting.

1 The shaped canvases were given to Paolini by the art dealer Massimo Minini, who had found them at the Colorificio Nord in Milan, where Lucio Fontana used to have the canvases of his Quanta made.