Studio per “Dilemma”, 2000-01

At the centre of the sheet, in the foreground, three stone pedestals are outlined on a quadripartite base. In the artist’s words: “One of the four parts of the base was empty: the absence of the fourth pedestal is underscored by a cavity with steps going down, equal and contrary to the one in which a broken pedestal, akin to a ruin, is instead placed on two steps going up. The other two parts, placed opposite each other along the diagonal of the base, held two other pedestals: one upside-down, the other right-side-up”1.
The collage refers to the project Dilemma, 1996-01 (GPO-0790), which was never realized. It is part of the initiative by the City of Turin, assigned to the curatorship of Rudi Fuchs and Cristina Mundici, involving the addition of eleven permanent works, commissioned from contemporary artists, in specific sites along the path of Turin's new Passante Ferroviario in Turin. The commission given to Paolini for a work opposite the piazza of the future station of the Passante on Corso Enrico De Nicola, at the intersection with Via Cassini, dates to 1996. After a period of stasis, the initiative was relaunched in 2001, it was then postponed indefinitely once again.

1  G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini. Early Dynastic, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Studio d’Arte Contemporanea Pino Casagrande (Milan: Skira editore, 2001), p. 67.