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Vis-à-vis (Alessandro), 1992

Archive number

GPO-0707

English title

Vis-à-Vis (Alexander)

Technique

Plaster casts, white plinths

Dimensions

Two casts h 55 cm each, two plinths 130 x 30 x 15 cm each, overall dimensions 185 x 90 x 15 cm

Edition details

The work was made in a numbered edition of seven (?). Because the original certifications of authenticity of the first three editions were misplaced, meaning that they could only be attested to by provenance, the exact identification of the related edition number cannot be determined. The artist inadvertently authenticated two editions with the number 6/6, designated here as “6/6 [a]” and 6/6 [b]”.

Collection

1/6 [?]	MUMOK Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna
2/6 [?]	Present whereabouts unknown
3/6 [?]	Present whereabouts unknown
4/6	Alessandro Maccaferri Collection, Bologna
5/6	Present whereabouts unknown
6/6 [a]	Nicola Bulgari Collection
6/6 [b]	ING Belgique Collection, Brussels

Acquisitions and loans

1/6 (?)	Acquired in 1994, inventory no. P 388/0
6/6 [b]	Acquired in 1994, inventory no. 3729

Display

The two plinths with the casts should be set up so that they are 30 cm apart (equal to the width of the plinth). Should there be either a skirting board or other type of board at the bottom of the wall, then it will be necessary to weigh it down with a "counter-plinth" to make up for the gap with respect to the wall.

Description

Two halves of the same plaster cast of a Hellenistic head of Alexander the Great are positioned one opposite the other – vis-à-vis as the title tells us – on two plinths up against the wall.
The exchange of gazes between the two identical figures questions the very reasons for the existence of the work and its coming into being by way of our gaze. In the artist's own words: “When I place two identical editions of the same antique sculpture one in front of the other it is not because I want to be the artificer or the rediscoverer of those sculptures; rather, my purpose is to be the observer who perceives the distance that separates them, hence, all the chances for a relationship or the lack of one that are determined between them, and between those images and ourselves”1
The work is part of the development of a specific theme that began in 1975 with Mimesi (cf. GPO-0283). A variant from the same year, with the female head of Hera, was made as a multiple with ten editions (GPE-0087), while another version conceived in 2002 also includes a drawing on paper and on the wall (GPO-0875).

1 G. Paolini interviewed by F. Pasini, in L’Illustrazione italiana 5, no. 24 (Milan), November, 1985, p. 21; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 209.

Sources

Menas, Alexander the Great, 3rd century BC, marble, Archaeological Museum, Istanbul.

Exhibitions

1993	Bologna, Studio G7, Uno scultore, un’opera, from 3 November, col. repr. p. 87 and on cover; edition 4/6.
1993	Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, Three Artistic Generations in Contemporary Italy, 2 December 1993 - 9 January 1994, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 65, col. repr. p. 53.
1994-95	Vienna, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Kommentar zu Europa 1994, 20 January - 27 February, touring to: Paris, Mutualité Française, 2-13 November; Valencia, Palau dels Scala, December 1994 - February 1995; catalogue Vienna: col. repr. p. 215; catalogue Valencia: col. repr. p. 89; exhibited only in Vienna and Valencia; edition MUMOK Collection.
1994	Genoa, Galleria Locus Solus, Giulio Paolini. Locus Solus, from 20 May, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. H1 p. 76, col. repr. p. 65; edition 6/6 [a].
1995	Sarzana, Fortezza Firmafede, Il mito e il classico nell’arte contemporanea italiana 1960-1990, 28 April - 15 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 164, repr. p. 108; edition 6/6 [a].
1996	Bologna, Toro Assicurazioni, Direzione Area Bologna, Toro per L’Arte a Bologna. Paolini, 16 January - 16 February, repr., entry by D. Trento; edition 4/6.
2008	Brussels, Institut supérieur pour l’étude du langage plastique, De Narcisse à Alice. Miroirs et reflets en question, 24 April - 21 June, repr. p. 37, entry by R. Bernasconi p. 36; edition 6/6 [b].
2014	Strombeek-Bever, Cultuurcentrum Strombeek, Arte Povera A-Z, deel 1, 3-30 October, cited in the checklist of exhibited works n. pag., not repr., referred to in the entry on the artist n. pag.; edition 6/6 [b].

Artist’ writings

•	G. Paolini in the interview with F. Pasini, in L’Illustrazione italiana 5, no. 24 (Milan), November, 1985, p. 21; republished in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 209.

Bibliography

•	M. Unterdörfer, Die Rezeption der Antike in der Postmoderne: der Gipsabguss in der italienischen Kunst der siebziger und achtziger Jahre (Weimar: VDG Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 1998), pp. 32, 175, cat. no. 64 pp. 146-147, repr. no. 9 p. 208.
•	All around all. Background, BSI Art Collection Lugano (Zurich: JRP Ringier, 2005), repr. p. [18].
•	Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Studio G7 (Bologna: Damiani editore, 2008), repr. p. 91.
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 707 p. 722, col. repr. (with incorrect indication of the overall dimensions).
•	Museum (Gand: Museumcultuur Strombeek, MER. Paper Kunsthalle, 2015), col. repr. pp. 143, 148 (exhibition view Strombeek-Bever 2014, with incomplete title “Vis-à-vis”).