Carte segrete, 2004

Two canvases set down on the ground – staggered one to the other and turned so that one can be seen from the recto and the other from the verso – overlap a square drawn on the wall; at the points where they meet, the drawing and the diagonals of the square, drawn with a red pencil, continue onto the canvases. Standing in front of the wall, in a central position in relation to the large drawn square, is a plexiglas case set on a transparent plinth and packed with paper elements. Carved in black into the outer sides of the case is the drawing of a room, with the spaces of its doors cut out. The “papers”, in part folded and in part torn, are made up of photographs of previous works by the artist and of his work materials. The first element inserted into the case – so that it is seen from the front – features the intersection of the diagonals marked in red and appears to be staggered with respect to the intersection of the diagonals of the square drawn on the wall.
All of the elements at play, correlated yet staggered, seem to seek an intimate correspondence that aligns them in the ideal dimension of a painting, which is still unknown. Similarly, the “secret papers” collected in the case with a drawing of a room on the four outer sides are clues that announce the inscrutable becoming of a work in progress. The diagonals that square the ensemble recall Disegno geometrico, 1960 (GPO-0001), the potential container of any painting, and as such a conceptual paradigm of all of Paolini’s research. (Among other things, the work is reproduced in the photograph, inserted first in the case, of which all we see is the verso with the intersection of the red diagonals.)