Doppia verità, 1995-96
GPO-0772
Double Truth
Plaster casts, plexiglas cases with reflecting side, white plinth
Four plexiglas cases 50 x 50 x 50 cm each, plinth 110 x 110 x 110 cm, overall dimensions 160 x 110 x 110 cm
Gian Enzo Sperone Collection
Two plexiglas cases placed close together on a plinth – the sides in contact along the transverse median axis mirror each other – each host half of a plaster cast of a classical head, located close to the mirror. The casts which belong to two different heads – one is an anonymous male, while the other belongs to the Athena Lemnia – are placed opposite each other so that from each side of the mirror the left half of one of the heads gazes at the right half of the other one, both in reality, and in the mirror.
In the chimerical game of vis-à-vis, each correspondence, however realistic, is illusory, since the "truth" is doubled and divided, generating a deceitful game of gazes that suspends the vision of an integral unit.
The same theme was also developed in four previous variants, made in 1995, with the casts of other heads arranged according to variable opposites (GPO-0748, GPO-0749, GPO-0750, GPO-0551).
• Athena Lemnia, Roman copy of the 5th century BC bronze original by Phidias, marble, Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna.
• Apollo Bust, 1st century AD Roman copy of an original from the Classical Age, white marble, Musei Reali – Museo di Antichità, Turin.
| 1998 | Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum, Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, 4 April - 31 May, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 4 p. 180, not repr. |
| 1999 | Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, 8 May - 25 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 11 p. 37, repr. pp. 87 (exhibition view Graz 1998), 106-107. |
| 2023-24 | Rovereto, Mart Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, L’uomo senza qualità. Gian Enzo Sperone collezionista, 26 October 2023 - 3 March 2024, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 124, col. repr. pp. 15, 16 (installations view), 124. |
| • | G. Paolini in the interview with M. Disch (1995), in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995 (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), p. 296. |
| • | Arti Visive, edited by G. Dorfles and A. Vettese, vol. 3A: Il Novecento. Protagonisti e movimenti (Milan: Istituto Italiano Edizioni ATLAS, 2002), p. 427, col. repr. no. 15.52. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 772 p. 785, col. repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. pp. 228-229 (exhibition view Graz 1998). |
| • | L’uomo senza qualità. Gian Enzo Sperone collezionista (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2023), edited by D. Isaia and T. Pistone, col. repr. p. 87. |
