Autoritratto come marionetta, 1996
GPO-0767
Self-Portrait as a Puppet
Velvet stage curtain, stretcher, tricorn hat, plexiglas sphere, fragments of a star chart
Dismantled work
• 1996, Paris, Galerie Yvon Lambert: two distinct elements of the display installation were added to the work: a plexiglas sheet, partially arranged under the stretcher (all the works on display were located on one or more plexiglas sheets, or else they included one or more plexiglas sheets among their components), and a steel cable hanging from the ceiling that dropped down on the curtain, as if to attest to its fall (in analogy with other works on display distinguished by a hanging or damaged element on the ground).
An upside-down tricorn hat containing the torn fragments of a star chart, a plexiglas ball, and a small, dark green velvet curtain with golden fringes, partially wrapped around a stretcher, constitute the "self-portrait as marionette" referred to in the title.
While the star chart and the ball recall the dimension of ideal perfection towards which the author inescapably turns his gaze, the upside-down position on the ground evokes the impossible appropriation of that Absolute. Similarly, the small curtain alludes to the threshold that divides the "theatre" of the representation from the sphere of reality.
The same title was used for two previous versions of the same theme, made in 1992 (GPO-0692) and in 1994 (GPO-0730).
| 1996 | Paris, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Giulio Paolini. L’Île enchantée, 6 January - 17 February. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), col. repr. p. 326 (exhibition view Paris 1996). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Premio Internazionale Koinè 2000 alla carriera, exhibition catalogue, Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Palazzo Forti (Milan: Electa, 2001), col. repr. pp. 54-55 (exhibition view Paris 1996). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 767 p. 779, col. repr. |
| • | Arte povera 2011, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2011), col. repr. no. 323 (exhibition view Paris 1996). |
