Dilemma, 1994
GPO-0842
Pencil and collage on paper
Two parts 150 x 150 cm made up of nine framed parts 49.5 x 69.2 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso of one of the eighteen elements: “Dilemma Giulio Paolini 1994”
Goetz Collection, Munich
Dilemma involves the vis-à-vis of two paintings each made up of nine elements arranged at short intervals. Each painting features the image of a work on display at the centre of a room. In the first case the subject that virtually stands out against the perspective of the drawn room is the Apollo Belvedere, while in the other case the work inside the room is the other painting, proportionally reduced, so that the viewer is offered his own point of view or his vision of that painting in the display space itself.
From one image to another, furthermore, a blank square – tilted with respect to the other framed sheets of the same size – is found, in the first case, to overlap the image of the sculpture so that it is partially hidden, and in the second case, to fall behind Apollo.
Between one painting and the other the viewer finds himself in an authentic "dilemma": while the first painting invites him to enter the virtual space of the representation, the second one brings him back to that threshold, reminding him of the distance that separates him from that dimension. The dilemma thus involves him in the first person: to be able to "see", he must "forget" the stage that is set up, but at the same time his gaze is inexorable from the position where he finds himself looking, on this side of the scene.
The theme, which dates to 1985 – as attested to by Studio per “Dilemma” (GPC-1709) –, was reformulated in a subsequent variant, made in 1989 (GPO-0639).
Belvedere Apollo, 2nd century AD copy of the 330-320 BC original by Leochares, Musei Vaticani, Rome.
| 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. 110 (exhibition view), 111. |
| • | 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. 110, 111, caption p. 261. |
