Scene di conversazione, 1979-80

Two canvases propped up against the wall – the large one is visible from the verso, the small one from the recto – are integrated by the life-size drawing of two specular figures, each of which associated with a rectangle of the same size of the canvas seen from the recto. The figure in a tail-coat drawn from the back on the overturned canvas appears to be intent on hanging a painting, while the other one, drawn on the wall and turned towards the viewer, observes the painting it holds before itself along with several photographs. This (twofold) scene of a figure showing a painting corresponds to the situation installed before the wall, where on a music stand an envelope for photographs features the life-size profile of a hand, along with two photographs located behind the envelope, as if it were being held down by a hypothetical third figure standing in front of the music stand. Lastly, on the floor a photograph is held upside down under the overturned canvas. All the photographs document the two moments that preceded the final arrangement of the work.
The work in fact constitutes the final episode of a work in progress, made as part of an exhibition at the Galleria Salvatore Ala held in Milan between the month of December 1979 and the spring of 1980, for which Paolini chose to develop a single work, to be revealed at three successive times. In the first phase, which did not yet include the drawing on the wall, the small primed canvas was hung behind the overturned canvas so that it was just visible above and visually corresponded to the painting being hung by the figure drawn from the back, while on the music stand was the envelope with the detail of the hand alone. In the second episode, Paolini added the drawing on the wall of the second figure and dislocated the small canvas in the area corresponding to the painting being held by that same figure before itself. Furthermore, he placed a photograph of the previous situation on the music stand, and an upside-down image on the ground.
The same title was used for a performance in Tokyo in 1982 (GPO-0469), and for a work made in 1984 (GPO-0498).