Il nome proprio, 1986

Il nome proprio is a work in progress, which Paolini updates with every exhibition, modifying or actualizing the components. The common denominator is a plexiglas case placed on an image or on an assemblage of paper elements, which feature an empty rectangle in the middle, corresponding to which is a crumpled up fragment with the artist’s name. Each time the paper components vary and a further reproduction of a previous exhibition is added. The title offsets the indisputability of the proper name with the undecipherability of the crumpled up object, casting light on the impossibility of a foreseeable adhesion between the author and the name that distinguishes him, between the thing and the title that defines it.
In the first two presentations of the work in Rivoli in 1986 and in Bologna in 1990, the case was placed on the poster of a previous solo exhibition, respectively at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart (1986) and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome (1988). From the third exhibition of the work in Genoa in 1993 onwards, the case was instead laid down on a plexiglas sheet that holds a sheet of drawing paper with a rectangle cut-out in the middle, which is matched time after time with the photographs of the previous versions of the work itself (in Genoa, two photographs reproduced the first two installations of Il nome proprio in Rivoli and in Bologna; in 1998 in Graz the addition of a third colour photograph recorded the presentation in Genoa; in 2004 in Rome a fourth photograph illustrated the previous Graz version, while in 2005 in Winterthur and Münster a fifth photograph documented the previous installation in Rome). The name of the artist, crumpled up in the vacant square, is taken from the title-page of one of his catalogues (in Genoa, Graz, Rome) or written by hand by the artist himself on a blank sheet (Winterthur, Münster).