Era vero (Averroè), 1983-85

A Borsalino top hat is turned upside down on a glass sheet that holds down two printed pages, in which the artist's work Averroè (1967, GPO-0138) is reproduced.1 Inside it, the hat holds the torn pages from the catalogue of the 1985 solo show at the Galerie Maeght Lelong in Paris, for which the work was made.
The “truth”, evoked in the title by the anagram for “Averroè”, refers to the "true" testimonies (declarations and printed images) collected in the top hat, but also to the "true" correspondence between the multiple flags in Averroè and the multitude of torn pages. The truth, on the contrary, remains plural: the truth of the work remains a whole of hypotheses and clues for which lots are drawn.
The top hat, used here for the first time, constitutes a complementary element to the ceremonial attire – introduced by the artist in his repertoire in 1980 – and thus recalls the magic trick and the figure of the artificer-actor, magician, and illusionist.
This work is part of a series of seven variants, made on the occasion of solo exhibitions held between 1983 and 1985, which are distinguished by the different source used for the pages placed inside the hat (GPO-0489, GPO-0499, GPO-0505, GPO-0509, GPO-0524, GPO-0543, GPO-0550).

1 The double-page spread is from the first monograph devoted to the artist: G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), pp. 58-59, reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019).