Sotto le stelle, 1985-86

A medal holder in gilded wood, with blue velvet inside studded with gilded hooks, contains the starched collar and shirt-front of a tail-coat, inserted in the glass of the medal holder so that it sticks out on both sides. 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, recalling the starry sky in the constellation of gilded hooks and nails, while the collar and shirt-front of the tail-coat represent two traces left by the author, who, in his bold attempts to conquer an absolute dimension, ends up stuck on the border between sky and Earth.
The work is part of 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).