Reportage, 2000

The two parts of the work, hung vis-à-vis on two opposite walls and shown here as A and B, refer to two complementary situations. In side A the framed drawing1 hides the upper part of a seated figure, traced on the wall in a life-size representation and turned to face the viewer. The figure’s profile also extends into the paper fragments applied to the glass of the frame: several elements from a drawn self-portrait reproduce one of the artist’s hands and a part of his face.2 The figure’s eye is positioned so that it corresponds to the vanishing point of the perspective and is crossed by the intersection between two diagonals in red pencil).3 Drawn all around on the wall is a regular pattern of squares, the same size as the framed element.
In side B the middle frame is reversed and bears the autograph inscription “Reportage / Giulio Paolini / 2000”. The drawing on the wall reiterates the same pattern of squares (or “paintings”), but in this case against the background of the perspective which in side A is situated inside the frame. In the upper half of the drawing, several red pencil lines that extend spoke-like from the frame evoke the seated figure’s visual field. Scattered on the frame and wall are several fragments from the portrait used for side A.
The title seals the link between the two parts of the work: side B “reports” – hence, the term “reportage” – the point of view of the seated figure, represented in side A. From one side to another, meaning from side A to side B or vice versa, the figure’s cone of vision also becomes our own: the subject of the “reportage” is not the vision of a painting (albeit attested to by the title, signature and date), but rather the visual act itself.

1 The photographic enlargement reproduces the design in perspective of a floor or stage with a modular pattern meant to serve as the virtual space of the representation.
2 In the original portrait, the image of the face is traced so that it is superimposed on several blank sheets held down by a drawing pin; hence, the latter coincides with the artist’s left eye. The drawing was used for the first time in 1989 in a series of works on paper entitled Senza titolo (Ni le soleil ni la mort) (cf. from GPC-0752 to GPC-0759).
3 The red diagonals evoke those of Disegno geometrico, 1960 (GPO-0001) and, akin to many other works, they distinguish the lines that delimit the cone of vision.