Place des Martyrs, 1982-83
GPO-0488
Gilt frame, ceremony suit, painted glass fragments, pencil and collage on ceiling
Frame 60 x 40 cm, overall dimensions variable
Dismantled work
Place des Martyrs suspends the gaze between Earth and sky: on the ground, up close to a column, a dishevelled ceremonial attire associated with a golden frame and some fragments of blue-painted glass simulates a figure that has fallen from the "exploded" sky, evoked on the ceiling by a multitude of painted glass fragments distributed in random order and integrated with several rectangles drawn in pencil.
The figure that has fallen to the ground (a fragile stand-in for the artist, like the protagonist of La caduta di Icaro from the previous year (GPO-0464) finds itself to be a “martyr”, after deceiving itself into thinking it could touch a fulfilled image, represented by a frame with the same "symbolic" dimensions as Disegno geometrico (GPO-0001), and, because it is gold, the metaphorical indication of a sublime dimension.
The title, inspired by a suggestive photograph of the Place des Martyrs in Algiers found by the artist, causes a dense space of memory to resound: like in other cases, Paolini favours an expression in a foreign language to enhance the evocative power and the emphatic function attributed to the title.
| 1983 | Cologne, Galerie Paul Maenz, Giulio Paolini. Place des Martyrs, 25 February - 22 March. |
| • | G. Paolini in Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), p. 102. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. pp. 106-107. |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. nos. 45 (detail), 110 (erroneously dated “1982”). |
| • | Paul Maenz Köln 1970-1980-1990. Eine Avantgarde-Galerie und die Kunst unserer Zeit / An Avant-Garde Gallery and the Art of Our Time, edited by G. de Vries (Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1991), col. repr. p. 82. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 20 (detail). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Early Dynastic, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Studio d’Arte Contemporanea Pino Casagrande (Milan: Skira editore, 2001), col. repr. pp. 37-38. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 488 pp. 502-503, col. repr. (exhibition view and detail). |
| • | G. Bonomi, La disseminazione. Esplosione, frammentazione e dislocazione nell’arte contemporanea (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino Editore, 2009), p. 114, col. repr. p. 70. |
| • | A. Soldaini, “‘Cos’altro c’è da dire?’”, in Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), p. 40, col. repr. |
