Il mondo di prima, 2020

Seven picture frames, randomly arranged on a period table, feature photomontages of the author as a child in imaginary circumstances: in Henri Matisse’s studio, on the stage of a theatre, in museum spaces, or in conversation with a female nude. In the eighth photomontage leaning against the backrest of a chair next to the table, a young Giulio is seen at the threshold of the room in the Massimo De Carlo gallery where the work was shown for the first time.
The random arrangement of the picture frames suggests a labyrinthine “assembly” of figures of different provenances and from different times, offsetting the domestic dimension of the table and the intimate register of the artist’s own childhood portraits. Akin to an imaginary photoreportage, the artist of today depicts himself in favourite places pertaining to past eras, intersecting, with a game of temporal shifts, the “past predictions” of the artist of today with the “future promises” of the child of yesterday.
The same theme was developed in two other variants from the same year, distinguished by the absence of the single element displayed on the chair (GPO-1108, GPO-1109).