Polvere, 1994

Arranged at the centre of a primed canvas one on top of the other and in a staggered position are six reproductions from a volume from the same year containing some of the artist's writings,1 all of which are held down by a plexiglas sheet. In the area corresponding to a small cut in the middle, made in both the sheet and the images, is a linen tester, which instead of bringing the images into closer view reveals the dust that is deposited on the canvas through that empty square. In the artist's own words: “The magnifying glass offers a clear picture of a portion of the void that seems to announce the disappearance, or 'pulverization', of all the images”2.
The same theme was previously formulated in three other variants, realized in 1992 (GPO-0702, GPO-0703).

1 G. Paolini, Locus Solus, vol. I (Genoa: Edizioni della Galleria Locus Solus, 1993). The images, which accompany a long text by the author, correspond to illustrations nos. 2 (Giulio Paolini, Giulio Paolini, 1971), 6 (Giulio Paolini, Locus Solus, 1975, multiple), 9 (Paul Valéry while writing his own name), 14 (Giulio Paolini, Pièce unique, 1991), 15 (the first photograph obtained from Nicéphore Niépce in 1822), 16 (view of Palazzo delle Esposizioni while construction is underway, Venice 1895 [now Padiglione Centrale della Biennale di Venezia]). The volume was published on the occasion of the cycle of solo exhibitions held at the Genoese gallery between 1993 and 1994, within which the work was shown for the first time.
2 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2005), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 702 p. 715.