Giorno e notte, 1988

Giorno e notte is an ephemeral intervention made up of twelve episodes installed on both the floor and the walls, for which sheets of white, light grey, dark grey, and black paper are a common denominator. The number twelve recalls the hours in the day, while the colour spectrum from white to black alludes to the changing of the light from day to night. Together the twelve moments propose motifs and modes that are distinctive of Paolini's language in the 1980s, including the order of linear succession and the disorder of free distribution – as the expression of the endless conjectures around the possibility of an image or a painting – and the traces of the author and his "missed" attempts at touching the absolute.

Wall installations:
1) seven framed sheets form a horizontal sequence, which from the black at the centre grows lighter along both of the sides towards the white: scattered all around the wall are perspective drawings and plans of the display space;
2) a framed sheet makes up the centre of a row of squares of the same size, delineated for the entire length of a wall;
3) some white, grey, and black sheets lined up close together or at intervals equal to their size generate a modular pattern of fulls and voids (the black sheet at the centre is framed);
4) two framed sheets that overlap so that they are staggered form a star, located close to the ceiling;
5) a framed black sheet occupies the centre of a wall at the viewer's eye level;
6) two framed black sheets arranged in a tilted position and so that they slightly overlap are associated with two black men's shoes fastened to the sides of the frames; scattered all around them are four other framed sheets in white and grey;
7) some fragments of grey sheets are joined in a frame so that the central area is left free, as if to suggest an image with a hole in it.
Floor installations:
8) a black sheet drops down on a frame viewed from the verso, propped up against the wall;
9) a white sheet that is framed and arranged in the corner of the room is half-hidden by a shirt draped over the frame; inside the shirt collar is a rolled up white sheet;
10) a framed grey sheet whose glass has been shattered is placed on the floor and associated with a rock situated where the glass is broken;
11) a framed grey sheet featuring the drawing of scattered laurel leaves is surrounded by real leaves;
12) a framed white sheet overlaps at the centre a multitude of loose sheets, which from the central area towards the outer area turn from white to black.