O.d.E., 1995-96
GPE-0099
Einaudi’s Glasses
Photo print and original collage by the artist
60 x 45 cm
Signed on the recto: “P. Mussat Sartor” (bottom left), and “Giulio Paolini” (bottom right)
Autograph numbering on the recto, bottom centre
25 in Arabic numerals from 1/25 to 25/25
12 artist’s proofs in Roman numerals from I/XII to XII/XII
From one edition to another the photograph of Mussat Sartor varies (shades of grey, degree of brightness and contrast) as does the collage insert by Paolini (position, appearance, and source of the element applied).
Impresa per l’Arte Contemporanea, Castiglione Torinese (Turin)
The print was produced by the art dealer Filippo Fossati to support the art journal Impresa per l’Arte Contemporanea, founded in 1995 by Fossati together with Sergio Risaliti. It is a work made jointly by Paolo Mussat Sartor, author of the photographs, and Giulio Paolini, author of the collage inserts.
The print edition conceived together with the photographer Paolo Mussat Sartor consists of the photograph of the spectacles of the Turin publisher Giulio Einaudi – hence the title "O.d.E.", which stands for “Occhiali di Einaudi", Einaudi’s Eyeglasses – lying across the blank page of an open book.1 The photograph, which from one copy to the next of the print run is distinguished for the variations in the brightness, the contrast, and for the grey nuances, receives Paolini's intervention, applied by collage, distinguished by different sizes, forms, and subjects. In many cases it is the detail of a cosmic image (planets, drawings of orbits, details of star charts, daytime and night-time skies), while in other cases we find the typical motifs from Paolini's repertoire (a frame, fragments of autograph writings, a copy of the photograph itself, a blank square).
The blank page of the book, the spectacles (very similar to the ones that Paolini was wearing at the time) and the fragments of images: the expectation before the untouched surface, the device of the gaze, the scenic space of the performance that gradually comes to life with apparitions, clues, traces of an unseizable dimension.
The title and Mussat Sartor's photograph were returned to in 2012 in a large-scale work paying homage to Giulio Einaudi (GPO-1025, cf. also the correlated Studio per “O.D.E”, 1994-12, GPC-1301).
1 Mussat Sartor's photograph was taken in 1994 for the ex libris conceived by Paolini for Giulio Einaudi (cf. Impressions graphiques. Progetti e collaborazioni editoriali di Giulio Paolini [Turin: Marco Noire Editore, 1989], update supplement 1989-95, cat. no. 11).
Photograph of Giulio Einaudi’s glasses taken by Paolo Mussat Sartor, 1994.
| 2001 | New York, Esso Gallery, Multipli 1967-2001. Multiples, editions and books by the Arte Povera Artists, 16 January - 3 March; editions 9/25, 20/25. |
| 2022 | Turin, Galleria d’Arte Roccatre, Sollazzo Ottico, 8 April - 7 May; edition 19/25. |
| 2022 | Monforte d’Alba (Cuneo), Castello di Perno, Giulio Paolini. O.D.E., 29 October - 19 November, col. repr. p. 152, referred to in the text by G. Schiavon pp. 65-66; edition 16/25. |
