Intervallo, 1985
GPO-0549
Interval
Plaster casts, white plinths
Two casts 45 x 21 x 17 cm each, two plinths 120 x 40 x 20 cm each, overall dimensions variable
The work was executed in a numbered edition of six. Edition 6/6 was authenticated by the artist as dated to 1985/86.
| 1/6 | Private collection |
| 2/6 | Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia |
| 3/6 | Giancarlo and Danna Olgiati Collection, Lugano |
| 4/6 | Present whereabouts unknown |
| 5/6 | Private collection |
| 6/6 | Elisabeth and Gerhard Sohst Collection |
| 4/6 | From 1987 to 1995 on loan at Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent |
| 6/6 | Since ca. 1990 on loan at Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg |
The two halves of the plaster cast of the torso of the Athena Lemnia, each of which set down on a plinth, are situated one before the other, up close to two opposite walls.
“Intervallo – writes the artist – is the distance that separates the two ‘moments’ in which the figure comes apart. But on close examination, the intervals are also two. The first one, which is visible, is made up of the short distance that separates the two halves of the same statue on two walls of the room. The second one, which is virtual or imaginary, is the entire circumference of our planet (minus the short portion visible in the room) through which the two halves could be put back together again. Could it therefore be the beginning and the end of the subject?".1
The same theme was formulated in three other variants made between 1984 and 1986 with the casts of other classical statues (GPO-0542, GPO-0549, GPO-0571).
1 G. Paolini in an unpublished passage of an interview with M. Belpoliti that took place in 1999, typescript held in the artist’s archive.
Athena Lemnia, Roman copy of the 5th century BC bronze original by Phidias, marble, Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna.
| 1985 | Brussels, Sans Analogie, Galerie Albert Baronian, October. |
| 1986 | Siracusa, Chiesa dei Cavalieri di Malta, Mater Dulcissima, 18 January - 19 February, not repr. |
| 1986 | Los Angeles, Margo Leavin Gallery, Giulio Paolini, 29 November 1986 - 10 January 1987; edition 1/6. |
| 1986 | Turin, Galleria Christian Stein, Fideliter (1966-1986), from 15 December. |
| 1988 | New York, Marlborough Gallery, Visions / Revisions. Contemporary Representation, 29 April - 28 May, cat. no. 7 p. 4 (erroneously dated “1987”), col. repr. p. 20 (erroneously dated “1987”); edition 1/6. |
| 2003 | Magdeburg, Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, La Poetica dell’Arte Povera, 14 September - 7 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 65 p. 236, repr. pp. 10, 104 (exhibition views); edition 6/6. |
| 2011 | Brescia, Santa Giulia Museo della Città, temporary exhibition in the room of the Vittoria Alata, Autumn; edition 2/6. |
| 2012-14 | Lugano, Spazio -1, Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, from 23 June, no catalogue; edition 3/6 (the work remained installed also during the second exhibition which opened on 7 September 2013, as “Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati. Secondo anno”). |
| 2017 | Lugano, Spazio -1, A Collection in Progress, 30 September - 10 December, no catalogue; edition 3/6. |
| 2023 | Lugano, Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, selected works from the collection, from 25 March, no catalogue; edition 3/6. |
| • | Casa Vogue 170 (Milan), January, 1986, repr. on cover (with furnishings). |
| • | M. Castello, “Critica d’arte racconto dell’arte”, in Tema Celeste 4, no. 8 (Syracuse, Italian edition), May, 1986, repr. p. 12 (exhibition view Syracuse 1986). |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1986, vol. 2, repr. p. 38. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, exhibition catalogue, Nagoya, Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1987, repr. p. 40. |
| • | Catalogus van de collectie 1988 / Catalogue de la collection 1988 (Ghent: Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst, 1988), cat. no. 715 p. 224, not repr. |
| • | Mnemosyne oder das Theater der Erinnerung, exhibition catalogue, Worms, Schloss Herrnsheim, 1988, repr. pp. 94-95 (captions on pp. 94 and 95 are inverted). |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 115. |
| • | Antiguitat-modernitat en l’art del segle XX, exhibition catalogue, Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, 1990, repr. p. 161. |
| • | La collection Christian Stein. Un regard sur l’art italien (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée and Art Édition, 1992), repr. p. 190-191, catalogue entry p. 294. |
| • | Itinerario. Paolini, Bianchi, Rüdiger, exhibition catalogue, Mira, Riviera del Brenta, Villa Widmann, 1995, vol. Giulio Paolini, col. repr. n. pag. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Correspondances, exhibition catalogue, Rome, French Academy, Villa Medici (Turin: Umberto Allemandi & C., 1996), repr. p. 29 (erroneously dated “1984”). |
| • | A. Coulange, “La conversion universelle des choses en images”, in Id., Giulio Paolini. Carnets de la commande publique (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 1997), p. 15, repr. p. 17 (republished in the author’s collected writings, but without illustration and without reference to the group of Paolini’s Intervalli). |
| • | Konzeptkunst in der Hamburger Kunsthalle. Die Sammlung Elisabeth und Gerhard Sohst (Hamburg: Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1997), catalogue entry p. 86, not repr. |
| • | M. Unterdörfer, Die Rezeption der Antike in der Postmoderne: der Gipsabguss in der italienischen Kunst der siebziger und achtziger Jahre (Weimar: VDG Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 1998), pp. 42, 50, 166, cat. no. 57 p. 145, not repr. |
| • | D. Sung, “Arte per la vita”, in Case da abitare 48 (Turin), June, 2001, col. repr. p. 80 (installation view at the gallery-cum-house of Christian Stein, Turin). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Esposizione universale, exhibition catalogue, Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte (Düsseldorf: Richter Verlag, 2005), repr. p. 83 (the work originally planned for the exhibition was replaced at the last moment). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 549 p. 559, col. repr. |
| • | M. Minini, Quarant'anni 1973-2013 (Milan: a+mbookstore edizioni, 2013), col. repr. p. 27 (exhibition view Brescia 2011). |
