Esposizione universale, 2005

A large orthogonal framework made up of steel profiles features twelve spotlights and is lit by nine coloured halogen lamps, arranged on the ground, at equidistant intervals, along the sides of the room. Several plexiglas sheets are propped up against this framework. The sheets are carved with the drawing of a room in which an empty cube is located on a plinth. Other transparent or reflecting sheets are scattered on the ground. On one of these sheets is a plexiglas cube, topped by several translucid objects: a small empty case, a fragment of Murano glass, an hourglass containing white sand, and a crystal ball, along with several small plexiglas sheets featuring a carved drawing.
A workshop waiting to be fulfilled, the work presents itself as a work in progress: as if the elements scattered around on the ground were waiting to be composed and raised in order to form a volume or a sculpture. In other words, the work calls into question the moment before a work takes shape and therefore the definition of its identity. In a broader sense, Esposizione universale offered the idea itself of the exhibition as the “workshop” for the becoming of a work.
The “universal” dimension – the title recalls the great world exhibitions that have taken place every five years since 1851 – connotes the numerology underlying the elements at play: the twelve spotlights evoke the hours of the day and the months of the year; the nine coloured lamps recall the number of planets and therefore the universe; while the coloured lights evoke the entire colour spectrum.
The work harkens back to the theme of the first version of Esposizione universale, 1992 (GPO-0705), deconstructing its material and semantic components. Emerging from that first version are twelve plexiglas sheets, doubled to twenty-four, as well as some transparent objects arranged on the floor, such as the cube and the sheets featuring a carved drawing.