Progetto per il Monumento alla Resistenza, Cuneo, 1962

The project dates back to the national competition for the conception of a monument to honour the Resistance of the Partisans, to be placed in Cuneo (Piemont) at the junction between Viale degli Angeli and Corso Dante. The competition was held in 1962 by the City of Cuneo and it was awarded to Umberto Mastroianni.1
Paolini suggested the idea for a base that could be crossed made of exposed white concrete measuring 20 x 2000 x 2000 cm. At the centre, a groove, also square in shape, measuring 200 x 200 cm outlines an agglomerate of various materials (stones, bread, clothing, rifles), plasticized with white glue and covered with a transparent plexiglas sheet, fixed within the outer groove. The materials accumulated at random are supposed to symbolize the fragmentary findings and records of the partisan battles that took place in the region.

1 Paolini participated in the first-level competition whose deadline was 15 September 1962, open to Italian architects, engineers, painters, and sculptors. The jury, which met on 15 and 16 December 1962, included Giulio Carlo Argan, Albino Arnaudo, Nello Ponente, Maurizio Saglietto, and Bruno Zevi. Paolini’s contribution was excluded in the second-level phase.