L’exil du cygne, 1984

The work was made for the solo show in Spoleto in the summer of 1984, where it was installed above the passageway between two exhibition rooms, in the manner of an overdoor.
The photograph torn into two parts that are slightly staggered and held down in a clip frame1 portrays Narcissus sleeping on the shore of Lake Nemi, turned into a palette by way of an oval cut-out. On the body of water the drawn profile of a swan is reflected in its specular double. Narcissus's left hand is associated with a feather-pen, which corresponds to the adjacent tear in the form of a feather. Inserted in the tear is the torn detail of the number nine (a reference to the nine Muses and the symbol of completeness).2 Scattered all around the photograph on the wall are the torn fragments of the ancient image of a hand intent on writing with a feather-pen, partially associated with nine details of the reproductions of past works by the artist, torn from the catalogues of some of solo exhibitions.
The first formulations of the theme of L’Exil du cygne date to 1982 (cf. GPO-0466); the subsequent developments include a variant from the same year (GPO-0915), several versions on paper, and four other versions conceived between 1984 and 1993 (GPO-0513, GPO-0610, GPO-0652, GPO-0712).

1 This is the reproduction of a previous work on paper with the same title, L’exil du cygne, 1982-83 (GPC-0638).
2 Both details – the antique pen as well as the fragment with the nine numbers – are taken from a reproduction of plate III of D. Diderot and J. D’Alembert’s Encyclopédie, where the drawing accompanied by nine numbers didactically illustrates the "true way to hold a pen" while writing. The details scattered on the wall come from the same source.