Sotto le stelle, 1985-87
GPO-0595
Under the Stars
Medal display case, torn and crumpled photographic reproduction, gilded nails
Medal display case 34 x 44 cm, overall dimensions variable
Private collection
A medal holder in gilded wood, with blue velvet inside studded with gilded hooks, holds a colour reproduction of a crumpled celestial map. Scattered all around it, gradually thinning out as they are scattered outwards are the torn fragments of the same celestial map, held down by some of the many gilded nails strewn about on the wall around the medal holder.
The title establishes a twofold visual paradox between reality and imagination, on the one hand, recalling the starry sky in the constellation of gilded hooks and nails, and on the other, retracing the vision of a universe “under the stars" via the celestial map.
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).
| 1993 | Jouy-en-Josas, Fondation Cartier, Azur, 28 May - 12 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 271, col. repr. p. 253. |
| • | La collection Christian Stein. Un regard sur l’art italien (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée and Art Édition, 1992), repr. p. 200 (rotated by 180 degrees), catalogue entry p. 296. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 595 p. 609, col. repr. |
