Sotto le stelle, 1985
GPO-0556
Under the Stars
Medal display case, hat, gilded nails
Medal display case 34 x 44 cm, overall dimensions variable
Dismantled work
A medal holder in gilded wood, with blue velvet inside studded with gilded hooks, contains an upside down black hat. The regular arrangement of the hooks inside the medal holder is offset by a multitude of small gilded nails scattered all around it on the wall.
The title establishes a twofold visual paradox between reality and imagination: in addition to using the constellation of hooks and nails to recall the starry sky, it also invites the viewer to interpret the work on the wall in terms of the bottom up perspective, as if the object contained in the medal holder really were "under" the stars.
The work is the first in a series of thirteen variants, made between 1985 and 2025, which are distinguished by the presence of one or more medal holders, their dimensions, and, above all, the intervention that is associated with them (GPO-0556, GPO-0563, GPO-0594, GPO-0595, GPO-0606, GPO-0615, GPO-0632, GPO-0717, GPO-0718, GPO-0891, GPO-1096, GPO-1099, GPO-1182).
| 1985 | Rome, Galleria Ugo Ferranti, Nuovi lavori, [unknown dates]. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2005), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 556 p. 566. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 556 p. 566, col. repr. |
