Prima o poi, 1996-97
GPO-0785
Sooner or Later
Frames with passepartouts, pencil and collage on wall
Variable number of frames 102.5 x 72.5 cm each, overall dimensions variable
MASI Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano. Cantone Ticino Collection
Acquired in 2006, inventory no. MCA2006/0013
This continuous frieze, which varies in length depending on the length of the wall available, consists of a series of frames with white or black passepartouts, doubled inside by two proportionally reduced black or white rectangles (some of which are contained by the frame, either drawn or applied to the wall), and irregularly alternated with identical units drawn on the wall. Within the overall sequence, the alignment of the squares of the same format each form a frieze-within-a-frieze.
The sequence of the different combinations of real and virtual frames – as well as of fulls and voids, and the colours black and white – which in the manner of a game of combinations examines a limitless number of interchangeable hypotheses, defers the formulation of a solution open-endedly, dispersing towards infinity the determination of a complete image. In the artist's own words: “From beginning to end, without either a beginning or an end”.1
1 G. Paolini, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2006), p. 73.
| 1997 | Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, temporary presentation accompanying the opening on 7 June of the work Esposizione universale, 1997 (GPO-0783) made for the Museum foyer. |
| 1997 | Milan, Galleria Christian Stein, Giulio Paolini, from 27 October. |
| 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. 13 p. 181, 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. 12 p. 37, col. repr. pp. 95 (exhibition view Graz 1998), 103 (exhibition view). |
| 2005 | Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Giulio Paolini. Esposizione universale, 23 April - 24 June, touring to: Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Giulio Paolini. Esposizione universale, 1 October 2005 - 8 January 2006, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 6 p. 86, col. repr. n. pag. (exhibition view), referred to in the text by D. Schwarz p. 22. |
| 2007 | Lugano, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Affinità e complementi. Opere dai musei svizzeri in dialogo con la Collezione del Museo Cantonale d’Arte, 6 June - 9 September, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 143 (incompletely dated “1996”), repr. p. 165 (detail). |
| 2012-13 | Lugano, Museo Cantonale d'Arte e Museo d'Arte, Una finestra sul mondo. Da Dürer a Mondrian e oltre, 16 September 2012 - 6 February 2013, col. repr. no. 125 p. 170 (exhibition view Winterthur 2005). |
| 2023-24 | Lugano, MASILugano, Palazzo Reali, Bianco o nero, 11 November 2023 - 1 December 2024, no catalogue. |
| • | G. Paolini, In extremis, Course taught at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura, Faculty of Arts & Design, Venice, 2002; first published in G. Paolini, Quattro passi. Nel museo senza muse (Turin: Giulio Einaudi editore, 2006), p. 73. |
| • | G. Paolini, Andata e ritorno (Milan-Ravenna: Galleria Christian Stein and Danilo Montanari Editore, 2003), col. repr. p. 29 (exhibition view Milan 1997, erroneously dated “1995-96” on cover). |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Esposizione Universale, photo shoot of the solo exhibition in Winterthur 2005, in Lotus 125 (Milan), September, 2005, col. repr. p. 74. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 785 pp. 800-801, col. repr. (exhibition view Winterthur 2005). |
