Esposizione universale, 1992-97

This work, commissioned from the artist for the large double-height atrium at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille1 consists of two distinct groups of twenty-four glass cubes. On the top of each cube is a printed drawing. The units in the first group, distributed at regular intervals along the edge of the room reproduce the plan of their own arrangement in the atrium. Each time, a cut-out in the drawing marks the portion of the visual angle of the viewer, who from that point looks towards the centre. The units in the second group, arranged close together in the central area which is topped by a large glass ceiling, overall feature a drawing of the hall seen from below, so that the viewer has a 360° vision of the space observed from that point upwards. Above at the centre, a reflecting sphere hanging from the ceiling from steel cables reflects the architecture of the whole room and at the same time its representation in the drawings reproduced on the glass cubes.
The same title was used for two other site-specific works, made in 1992 (GPO-0705) and in 2005 (GPO-0904).

1 The artistic intervention commissioned from the artist by the Délégation aux Arts Plastiques of the French Ministry of Culture is part of the plan to refurbish and enlarge the Palais des Beaux-Arts by the Parisian architects Jean-Marc Ibos and Myrto Vitart between 1990 and 1997. The phase during which Paolini was involved ran from the first negotiations in 1992 to the official commission made on 2 November 1995. The phase during which the work was done, which began in 1996, ended with delivery of the work in late April 1997 and the inauguration on 7 June 1997 on the occasion of the reopening of the museum to the public.