Le Temple de la Gloire, 1983-98
GPO-0808
Golden pillow, old clock hands, torn paper elements
12 x 58 x 43 cm
Dismantled work
Le Temple de la Gloire is the general subtitle of a work conceived in 1983 and reformulated overall in 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 pillow, 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 varies, at times integrated with complementary elements.
The work centres on the contrast between the eloquence of the elegant pillow, evoking a solemn ritual – a dimension outside the flow of time – and the ephemeral futility of the object offered, which is prosaic and inconsistent.
In this version, the pillow has two brass hands from a vintage clock, hinged in an ensemble of paper fragments (taken from blank sheets and from the reproduction of an ancient wall clock) that make up a heterogenous and disunited “quadrant”.
Title from the opéra-ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Le Temple de la Gloire, 1745.
| 1998 | Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum, Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, 4 April - 31 May, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 18 p. 182, not repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), col. repr. pp. 96-97 (exhibition view Graz 1998, visible on the right). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 808 p. 829, col. repr. (exhibition view Graz 1998). |
