Dopo tutto, 2010

Four plexiglas cases (in turn contained inside one large case) hang from steel wiring before a large transparent sheet, it too suspended, which is etched with the drawing of a room seen in perspective. Outlined in black felt-tip marker on the assemblage of cases is the profile of a male figure seen from behind; a red felt-tip marker is used to indicate the diagonals. The sheet gathers a profusion of torn fragments – smaller at the centre and larger as they move outwards – occupying an area that is equal to that of the visual field (225 x 375 cm). The details situated in the area corresponding to the central “painting” come from a colour reproduction of Disegno geometrico (1960, GPO-0001), while the others come from black and white images of the artist’s exhibitions, works, and writings.
The figure seen from behind, introduced by Paolini in 2008 (cf. GPO-0967), represents a stand-in for both the author and the spectator who looks towards the mysterious horizon of a work still to come. The visual field is crowded with echoes of works that have already been “viewed” and “exhibited”, which at the same time are a prelude to still unknown apparitions, symbolically represented by the traces of Disegno geometrico (recalled in the red diagonals and fragments of images), the painting of all potential paintings, as well as the conceptual paradigm and point of everlasting return in Paolini’s poetics.
The work was made for the exhibition titled Exhibition, Exhibition, as a counterpoint to Disegno geometrico: the latter was installed at the start of the exhibition, while Dopo tutto was installed at the very end.