In volo (Icaro e Ganimede), 2019-20

A plaster cast of Ganymede, set on a tall plinth, is accompanied by a pair of gilt wings, held by the figure in its right hand. Arranged on the ground, under a plexiglas sheet that is askew with respect to the plinth, are a circular cut out of an image of the sky and the cut-out figure of Icarus borrowed from Charles Paul Landon’s Dédale et Icare (1799). There is also an antique globe placed up against the base.
The key to interpretation lies in the gilt wings that call into play the destinies of both Ganymede and Icarus, both of whom belong to ancient Greek mythology. A young man of supreme beauty, Ganymere flew into the sky, abducted by Zeus who took him to the Olympus to be his lover. Icarus, on the contrary, fell to the sea because the wax used to make his wings melted when he flew too close to the sun. In the artist’s own words: “Two naked bodies, one falling to the ground, the other soaring upwards, are both suspended in the vertigo of the flight (of the void). These are actors aimed at impersonating the parallel fates of two figures: Icarus and Ganymede, the end and the beginning of an idea of Beauty, of a single nameless figure”.1 A sort of allegorical “self-portrait”, In volo (Icaro e Ganimede) joins the desire for the absolute and the passion for beauty, albeit aware of the impossibility of their conquest and the fatal destiny of a flight that is too audacious.
The theme of the work was conceived in 2019 with a first version (GPO-1075), which is distinguished by the presence of a Wood’s light and the other elements arranged on the ground.

1 G. Paolini in conversation with B. Della Casa, January 2019.