Comédie Italienne, 1984
GPO-0520
Collage on framed photo prints
Nine framed parts 51 x 51 cm each, overall dimensions 225 x 225 cm
Galleria Fumagalli, Milan
The nine parts of a photograph are placed close together according to an arbitrary order of succession so as to generate a fragmented vision of an ungraspable subject. The photograph, taken at the Teatro Malibran in Venice in 1984, reproduces several moments of the play conceived by Paolini in collaboration with Carlo Quartucci in 1981, entitled Comédie Italienne. The collage of torn fragments of an astral image on the glass of the central element – some of the smaller fragments of the nebula are also scattered on the side elements – dates to a recent intervention, made by the artist in 2007, to emphasize the "missing"(or impossible) contact between the different elements in the photographic image.
Stage pictures of Comédie Italienne (1981) by Giulio Paolini and Carlo Quartucci taken at the Teatro Malibran, Venice, 1984.
| 1991 | Pesaro, Galleria Franca Mancini, Giulio Paolini. Il “Teatro” dell’opera, 10 August • 20 September, repr. n. pag. (first state, with incorrect orientation). |
| 1997 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Sipario / Staged Art. Balla, De Chirico, Savinio, Picasso, Paolini, Cucchi, 20 February - 25 May, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 252, col. repr. p. 160 (first state). |
| 2018 | Milan, Galleria Fumagalli, Giulio Paolini. Teoria delle apparenze. Opere 1969-2015, 16 January - 14 April, col. repr. pp. 4, 16, 28-29, 35, 38, 42-43, 46-47 (exhibition views), referred to in the texts by A. Madesani p. 14, A. Maggi p. 24. |
| • | Les Rencontres Rossiniennes 1980-2005. Venticinque anni di mostre del Teatro degli Artisti (Pesaro-Turin: Galleria Franca Mancini and Umberto Allemandi & C., 2005), col. repr. n. pag., b/w repr. pp. 100-101 (exhibition views Pesaro 1991, first state). |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Verona, Studio La Città, 2007, repr. (first state, brochure published on the occasion of the fair “Art Basel”); reprint 2008, repr. (second state, reprint on the occasion of the same exhibition presented at Studio La Città, Verona). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 520 p. 532, repr. |
