Tre per tre (ognuno è l’altro o nessuno), 1998-99
GPO-0835
Three for Three (Each One is the Other or None)
Fibreglass or plaster (varies according to the edition number), white platforms
Three casts h 130 cm each, three platforms 15 x 200 x 200 cm each, overall dimensions 145 x 410 x 410 cm
The work was executed in two editions, one in fibreglass, the other in plaster.
| 1 | Edition in fibreglass: Kreis Coesfeld, Münsterlandmuseum Burg Vischering |
| 2 | Edition in plaster: UniCredit Art Collection |
| 2 | Edition in plaster: acquired in 2008, inventory no. 24483, on permanent loan at MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome |
Three figures, each of which seated on a cubic volume, are each placed at the centre of an opaque white platform, it too square in shape, measuring 15 x 200 x 200 cm (it should be made so that it can support the weight of the casts).
“The scene is occupied by three male figures (three life-size plaster statues). At first, from a certain distance, we have the impression of being before three identical figures. And indeed they are, even though a second later, when we move in closer, we can see that the figure is the same, but that each of them represents three different roles or moments of the same figure.
The first one, characterized by a blank gaze that is lost in the void, is the model posing for a portrait.
The second one, similar to the first, is the author of the portrait, and intent on drawing.
The third one, again a reproduction of the other two, is the viewer of the work: he could thus be the viewer of the portrait, which is still incomplete, or of the work, of the very one that we are trying to describe and to which it belongs.
The three figures gravitate around the same “game table”. The game will never be able to begin, nor will it be able to end, because all of them are guests, and not the owners, of the same place: the place of the work, that is to say, the space where the work takes place. The guest of the work is the author, who in turn hosts the viewer. Drawing, observing. Observing, drawing… Inverting the order of the factors does not change the image, the dilemma remains, the Liber Veritatis continues forever.
How many and which are the images asked to contribute to the solution of the enigma? And even before that, what enigma are we talking about? What enigma will ever be solvable by images if the image is, in turn, an enigma?”1
1 G. Paolini in L'Ora X. Né prima né dopo, exhibition catalogue, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Sala della Meridiana (Naples: Mondadori Electa, 2009), pp. 35-36. The next to the last paragraph appeared for the first time in the writing that in 1997 accompanied the project Doppio gioco, 1997 (GPO-0791), in some ways similar to Tre per tre.
Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, Étude du dessin, 1757, engraving, National Gallery of Art, Washington, from Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, L’Étude du dessin, 1748, oil on canvas, 41 x 47 cm, Wanas Collection, Switzerland.
| 1999 | Münster, Skulptur-Biennale im Münsterland 1999, 7 August - 27 September, col. repr. p. 142 (exhibition view), documentation pp. 143-147, referred to in the text by B. Engelbach and F. Matzner pp. 60-63; fiberglass edition. |
| 2001 | CEAAC Centre Européen d’Actions Artistiques Contemporaines, Strasburgo, Giulio Paolini, 13 October - 23 December, no catalogue; plaster edition. |
| 2006 | Bergamo, Accademia di Belle Arti, Giulio Paolini. Fuori programma, 6 April - 16 July, col. repr. pp. 100-101, 103, 105 (exhibition views), referred to in the texts by G. Di Pietrantonio p. 10, G. Valagussa p. 18; plaster edition. |
| 2008 | Rome, Uccelliera della Galleria Borghese, Giulio Paolini. Tre per Tre, 9 February - 13 April, col. repr. (exhibition view Bergamo 2006), referred to in the texts by C. Strinati n. pag., A. Coliva n. pag. and text by A. Bonito Oliva n. pag.; plaster edition. |
| 2009-10 | Vienna, Bank Austria Kunstforum, Past Present Future. Werke aus der Sammlung der UniCredit Goup/ Highlights from the UniCredit Group Collection, 16 October 2009 - 10 January 2010, touring to: Verona, Palazzo della Ragione (Past Present Future. Le collezioni Fondazione Cariverona e Unicredit Group: arte per la città), 26 February - 3 June 2010; Istanbul, Yapi Kredi Cultural Center, 6 November 2010 - 7 January 2011, catalogue Vienna edition: mentioned as exhibited p. 128, col. repr. p. 42 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006); catalogue Verona edition: mentioned as exhibited p. 154, col. repr. p. 54 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006); the work was chosen as an icon for all the printed material related to the exhibition (image taken from the 2006 Bergamo exhibition) and was reproduced in a promotional postcard (exhibition view Bergamo 2006); plaster edition. |
| 2009-10 | Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Sala della Meridiana, L'Ora X. Né prima né dopo, 29 November 2009 - 18 January 2010, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 84, col. repr. pp. 36 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006), 63-71 (exhibition views), referred to in the text by R.S. Pecorara pp. 23-25; plaster edition (exhibition copy). |
| 2010-11 | Rome, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Spazio. Dalle collezioni d'arte e d'architettura del MAXXI, 30 May 2010 - 23 January 2011, col. repr. p. 295 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006), entry by S. Chiodi; plaster edition (exhibition copy). |
| 2013-14 | Bologna, MAMbo Museo d'Arte Moderna, La Grande Magia. Opere scelte dalla Collezione UniCredit, 20 October 2013 - 16 February 2014, col. repr. p. 93 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006); plaster edition. |
| 2015-16 | Rome, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Collezione MAXXI: libera e permanente, from 10 October 2015; plaster edition. |
| 2016 | Milano, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Expositio. Giulio Paolini per il Museo Poldi Pezzoli, 6 May - 5 September; col. repr. pp. 54-55 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006), referred to in the entry by M. Disch p. 54, text by the artist p. 57, referred to in the texts by E. Coen pp. 11, 13, 15; plaster edition (exhibition copy). |
| • | G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), pp. 128-129; republished in German and English in Skulptur-Biennale im Münsterland 1999, exhibition catalogue, Münster (Dülmen: Laumann-Verlag, 1999), pp. 143-147; in Italian and English in Giulio Paolini. Fuori programma, exhibition catalogue, Bergamo, GAMeC Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2006), p. 102; in Italian in G. Paolini, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2006), p. 71; in Italian in Giulio Paolini. Tre per tre (ognuno è l’altro o nessuno), exhibition catalogue, Rome, Uccelliera della Galleria Borghese (Rome: Electa Editrice, 2008), n. pag.; in Italian in A. Mattirolo, G. Paolini, L'Ora X. Né prima né dopo, exhibition catalogue, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Sala della Meridiana (Naples: Mondadori Electa, 2009), pp. 35-36, including a new paragraph). |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with F. Minervino in Giulio Paolini. Expositio, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Museo Poldi Pezzoli (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2016), p. 42. |
| • | G. Paolini cited in F. Bonazzoli, “Paolini accanto al Pollaiolo”, in Corriere della Sera (Milan edition), 4 May 2016, p. 17. |
| • | Arte all’arte. IV edizione: 1999, exhibition catalogue, San Gimignano, Arte Continua, 1999, repr. p. 199 (exhibition view Münster 1999). |
| • | Public Art. Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, edited by F. Matzner (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2001), pp. 542-543, repr. (exhibition view Münster 1999); in the English edition: Public Art. A Reader (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2004), pp. 356-357, repr. |
| • | S. Cincinelli, “Quando ti vidi non c’eri / Quando mi vidi non c’ero”, in Vis à vis. Autoritrarsi d’artista, exhibition catalogue, Nuoro, MAN Museo d’arte Provincia di Nuoro, 2002, p. 89, col. repr. p. 123 (exhibition view Münster 1999). |
| • | G. Paolini, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2006), repr. p. 71 (exhibition view Münster 1999). |
| • | G. Paolini, Per un verso o per l’altro. E altro ancora, vol. E altro ancora (Brescia: Edizioni l’Obliquo, 2007), repr. no. 9 p. 19 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006). |
| • | A. Zevi, “Ospite o titolare?”, in Risonanze #2. Giulio Paolini & Fabio Vacchi, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Spazio Risonanze, Auditorium Parco della Musica (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2008), p. 50, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 835 pp. 860-861, col. repr. (exhibition views Münster 1999 and Bergamo 2006). |
| • | Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna & MAXXI. Le Collezioni 1958-2008, edited by S. Frezzotti, C. Italiano and A. Rorro (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2009), vol. 2 p. 504 entry by A. Rorro, col. repr. (exhibition view Bergamo 2006). |
| • | Arte povera 2011, edited by G. Celant (Milan: Mondadori Electa, 2011), col. repr. no. 327 (exhibition view Naples 2009). |
| • | P. Guérin, “À propos de ‘Genius Loci’ (Éléments pour une histoire ‘naturelle’ de l’art) de Giulio Paolini”, in Id., Exercices du regard (Strasbourg: Édition du CEAAC, 2013), pp. 111, 113, col. repr. p. 112 (exhibition view Strasbourg 2001). |
| • | I. Bernardi, “Il giuoco delle parti”, in Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Rome, MACRO Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma and London, Whitechapel Gallery (Rome: Quodlibet Edizioni, 2014), p. 95, repr. p. 30 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006). |
| • | M. Disch, “Postfazione”, in B. Satre, Giulio Paolini. Essere o non essere, 1994-95. In collezione 1 (Turin-Mantua: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini and Corraini Edizioni, 2014), pp. 67-68, not repr. |
| • | MAXXI Arte. Catalogo delle collezioni, edited by B. Pietromarchi (Rome-Macerata: MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo and Quodlibet, 2017), pp. 237-238, col. repr. pp. 38-39, 238 (installation view at MAXXI Collection). |
| • | R. Cotroneo, Genius Loci. Nel teatro dell’arte (Rome: Contrasto, 2017), p. 84, col. repr. p. 85 (installation view at MAXXI Collection). |
| • | Committenze contemporanee, edited by G. Leardi (Mantua: Edizioni Corraini, 2022), pp. 70-89 (documentation of the solo exhibition Rome 2008, with republication of the text by A. Bonito Oliva and of the artist’s writing, in Italian and English), col. repr. pp. 72-73 (exhibition view 2010), 86, 89 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006, details). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. pp. 249 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006), 259, 262-263 (exhibition views Naples 2009). |
| • | G. Paolini, Eccomi. Qui dove sono (Turin: Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, 2025), col. repr. p. 91 (exhibition view Bergamo 2006). |
