Esposizione universale, 1992

Esposizione universale is made up of two plexiglas cubes placed one on top of the other, topped by the steel profile of a third, identical cube. Inside the central cube two smaller cubes duplicate the outer ones. At the viewer's eye level four small sheets screwed to the centre of the four sides of the middle cube feature a carved drawing with a square in the middle;1 this corresponds exactly to the four small squares at the centre of the four sides of the interior cube at the top. Scattered across the reflecting bottom of the cube set down on the ground are a plexiglas fragment and two whole sheets – the one in the middle corresponds to the carved square at the centre of the upper face of the middle cube – while two other plexiglas fragments are placed at the top on the steel profile.
The combination of a "sculpture" displayed in a case, on a base, and hypothetical "paintings" exhibited at the viewer's eye level, Esposizione universale offers, thanks to a kaleidoscopic game of transparencies, reflections, and doubles, the very idea of the exhibition as a place for the manifestation of possible visions. In this sense, it is a work of great importance as concerns the artist's 1991-93 output, which focused on a particular insistence on this theme (cf. in particular Contemplator enim, 1991, GPO-0681, and Teatro dell’opera, 1992-93, GPO-0709).
Esposizione universale was first shown at FIAC 92, the annual international contemporary art fair in Paris, which in 1992 chose Italy as its guest country. Invited by the Italian galleries to produce a new work, Paolini conceived Esposizione universale with reference to the fair as an "exhibition of exhibitions".2 In Paris the work was presented outside the Grand Palais – the fair headquarters – opposite the main entrance, on a wooden platform painted grey. Later, on the occasion of the exhibitions in Sabbioneta and Siena, Paolini installed the work inside instead, enriching it to varying degrees with complementary elements. In 1997 in Sabbioneta the artist placed numerous objects distinguished by their transparency on top of the middle cube, and between the base and the top of the structure he arranged four clip-on spotlights turned towards the inside of the two cubes, as well as four unmatched men's and women's shoes of different types and from different eras. In 1998 in Siena the work featured some accessory elements borrowed from the installation in Sabbioneta, and was the centre of an exhibition installation that combined various works.

1 The four different drawings respectively illustrate four squares placed close together to form a square made up of 3 x 3 units, several squares arranged concentrically, a room seen in perspective, and the pattern of a case on a base at the centre of a display space; cf. in Giulio Paolini. Esposizione universale, exhibition catalogue, Sabbioneta, Galleria degli Antichi (Ravenna: Danilo Montanari Editore, 1997), p. 19, bottom left.
2 Cf. G. Paolini interviewed by H.F. Débailleux, in Libération (Paris), 23 October 1992, p. 30.