Nullus enim locus sine genio est, 1969

The well-known Latin phrase (No place is without a genius) – taken from the comment by Servius to Book V of the Aeneid of Virgil (5, 95) – is painted in copper-coloured metallic paint on a cloth banner.
The work is part of a group of works made during the same year (GPO-0183, GPO-0184, GPO-0185, GPO-0187) characterized by enigmatic Latin quotations transcribed on banners or on metal plaques, based on a paradox. As the artist explains, the Latin phrases "recited and divulged with the emphasis of a banner or a sign" actually refer "to an order of private contemplation". “The transcriptions are pronouncements, professions of faith, but also the awareness of their unrepeatability, confined as they are in an ancient language, distant from all possible verification or reappropriation”,1 Paolini remarks.
The work was raised as a banner in an space outdoors only occasionally while it was being made. Since the 2000s, the artist has envisioned its installation exclusively indoors. The fabric is hung from a wall with one end, and the other end falling to the ground freely, leaving only some of the writing visible.

1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch (2003), in M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 183 p. 198.