L’altra figura, 1986

Two plaster casts of the Ephebe of Marathon, each of which set on a brass profile base, are placed up against the side walls of a room. A tensostructure made of steel cables stretched between the point where the two figures come into contact with the wall and the four upper corners of the room generates a geometric design that squares off the length and width of the room and includes the fragments that are left of the “other figure” scattered on the ceiling beginning from a concentration at the centre. Two fragments are located on the Ephebe’s open hand and on the wall in the area corresponding to the other hand, respectively.
The fifth variation on the theme of the "other figure" (begun in 1979-80 and further researched in 1983-84, cf. GPO-0419, GPO-0501, GPO-0519, GPO-0530) was commissioned by the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, on the occasion of the refurbishment of the theatre by the architect Charles Vandenhove1. The same theme was formulated in a variation with plaster casts in the same year (GPO-0578).

1 Refurbishment (1984-86, opening 12 November 1986) involved four artistic interventions: two in the foyer (the floor is by Sol LeWitt, the painting on the ceiling by Sam Francis) and two in the Salon Royal (the floor is by Daniel Buren, the installation is by Giulio Paolini). The prototypes at a scale of 1:1 of the work commissioned from Paolini and Buren, showcased by Charles Vandenhove for the solo show of his works at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1986, are now owned by the city of Ghent (on loan to the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent).