Il mondo di prima, 2020
GPO-1109
The World Before
Collage in photo frame with passepartout
Seven framed collages: 37 x 33.5 cm, 37 x 32 cm, 32 x 27 cm, 30 x 31 cm, 27 x 32 cm, 26.5 x 24.5 cm, 24 x 21 cm, overall dimensions 34 x 110 x 71 cm
Private collection
Seven picture frames, arranged at random on the support surface of a table or other piece of furniture, each present a photomontage featuring the artist as a child in imaginary circumstances: in Constantin Brancusi’s studio, on the stage of a theatre, standing next to antique or modern works, or contemplating a female nude.
The random arrangement of the picture frames suggests a labyrinthine “assembly” of figures of different provenances and from different times, offsetting 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 another variant from the same year (GPO-1108) and in a version with an eighth collage displayed on a chair (GPO-1094).
• Hubert Robert, Vue imaginaire de la Grande Galerie du Louvre en ruines, 1796, 115 x 145 cm, oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
• Constantin Brancusi’s studio, Paris.
• Lucio Fontana, Struttura al neon per la IX Triennale di Milano, 1951, neon, 1000 x 800 x 250 cm, Polo Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Museo del Novecento, Milan.
• Statue of Venus, unknown source.
• View of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Paris.
• Carlo Mollino, female nude.
• Portraits of Giulio Paolini, from a family album.
