Big Bang, 1997-98
GPO-0823
Plexiglas volumes, primed canvases, chair, miniaturized objects, spotlights, sheets of drawing paper, crumpled paper elements
Two volumes 80 x 80 x 80 cm each, three canvases 80 x 80 cm each, overall dimensions variable
Collection of the artist
From December 2000 to December 2001 on loan at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin
Depending on the exhibition space, the crumpled elements are either distributed solely on the ground or on the walls and ceiling as well.
A chair and three primed canvases, associated with two plexiglas cubes placed one atop the other, evoke the dimension of the artist’s studio: the lower cube acts as a “work table”, while the upper one is the miniature model of an atelier (enclosed within it are a chair, identical to the life-size one, a plexiglas sheet propped up against an easel, several canvases, and a crystal globe). The balls of crumpled paper scattered all around (photographic reproductions of previous works, posters, notes, drawings) represent traces of “works in progress”, attempts that have been discarded or missed, tossed to the ground or hurled into orbit like celestial bodies. The clip-on spotlights fastened here and there (there are nine of them, just like the planets), illuminate the central core, the starting point or origin of a work’s presumed manifestation.
The title, which refers to the birth of the universe, indeed symbolically harkens back to the germinal moment of the birth of a work. In the artist’s own words: “Big Bang tends to fix the initial, absolute and symbolic instant of the attempt to spot a work’s ungraspable image”.1
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2007), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 823 p. 844).
| 1998-99 | Brescia, Galleria Massimo Minini, Giulio Paolini. Big Bang, 2 December 1998 - 30 January 1999. |
| 1999 | Geneva, MAMCO Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Giulio Paolini. Salles d’attente, 22 June - 23 December, no catalogue. |
| 2000-01 | Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Arte povera in collezione, 6 December 2000 - 25 March 2001, col. repr. pp. 96-97 (exhibition view), 225 (exhibition view Brescia 1998, detail), catalogue entry by M. Disch p. 224. |
| 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, 30 September 2005 - 1 January 2006, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 24 p. 88, col. repr. n. pag. (exhibition view), referred to in the text by D. Schwarz pp. 23-24. |
| 2013-14 | Rome, MACRO Museo d'arte contemporanea Roma, Giulio Paolini. Essere o non essere, 29 November 2013 - 9 March 2014, touring to: London, Whitechapel Gallery, 9 July - 14 September 2014, cited in the checklist of exhibited works pp. 154 (Rome) / 155 (London), col. repr. pp. 135 (exhibition view Rome), 136 (exhibition view Winterthur 2005), 137 (detail, Rome), entry by M. Disch p. 134, referred to in the foreword by I. Blazwick p. 14 and in the texts by B. Pietromarchi p. 41, Bernardi p. 94; in the exhibition guide made by the MACRO col. repr. p. 25 (exhibition view Winterthur 2005), entry by M. Disch p. 24. |
| • | G. Paolini in Arte povera in collezione, exhibition catalogue, Rivoli, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Milan: Edizioni Charta, 2000), p. 224. |
| • | G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2007), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 823 p. 844. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Turin, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Turin: Hopefulmonster, 1999), col. repr. pp. 62-63 (exhibition view Brescia 1998, details). |
| • | Arte povera in collezione (Rivoli-Milan: Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and Edizioni Charta, 2000), catalogue entry by M. Disch p. 224, col. repr. pp. 96-97 (exhibition view Rivoli 2000-01), 225 (exhibition view Brescia 1998, detail). |
| • | Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972, exhibition catalogue, London, Tate Modern, 2001, col. repr. p. 284 (exhibition view Rivoli 2000-01). |
| • | M. Disch, “Le sette stanze dell’esposizione. L’opera all’opera (l’immagine presunta)”, in Giulio Paolini. Premio Internazionale Koinè 2000 alla carriera, exhibition catalogue, Verona, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Palazzo Forti (Milan: Electa, 2001), p. 52, repr. (exhibition view Rivoli 2000-01). |
| • | Il critico come curatore, edited by M. Bortolotti (Cinisello Balsamo-Milan: Silvana Editoriale and Artshow Edizioni, 2003), col. repr. pp. 112-113 (exhibition view Brescia 1998). |
| • | “Giulio Paolini. Esposizione Universale”, photo shoot of the solo exhibition Winterthur 2005, in Lotus 125 (Milan), September, 2005, col. repr. p. 71. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 823 pp. 844-845, col. repr. (exhibition views Brescia 1998 and Winterthur 2005). |
| • | R. Ferrario, Giulio Paolini. Un viaggio a distanza (Busto Arsizio: Nomos Edizioni, 2009), p. 113, col. repr. p. 112 (exhibition view Rivoli 2000-01). |
| • | Arte Povera in Moscow. Works from the collection of the Castello di Rivoli, exhibition catalogue, Moscow, Multimedia Art Museum, 2011, col. repr. pp. 14-15 (exhibition view Rivoli 2000-01). |
| • | F. Tedeschi, Il mondo ridisegnato. Arte e geografia nella contemporaneità (Milan: Vita & Pensiero, 2011), p. 172, repr. no. 58 (exhibition view Winterthur 2005). |
| • | I. Bernardi, Giulio Paolini. Opere su carta: un laboratorio gestuale per la percezione dell’immagine (Turin: Prinp Editore, 2017), p. 51, not repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), col. repr. pp. 232-233 (exhibition view Brescia 1998), 266 (exhibition view Rome 2013), 269 (exhibition view London 2014). |
