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Hierapolis, 1982

GPO-0479

Fractured plaster cast, photo prints, plexiglas sheets

Four photo prints 120 x 180 cm each, overall perimetral dimensions 250 x 370 cm

The artist had originally planned to make three editions of the work, but eventually made only two.

1 Private collection
2 Dismantled work

The fragments of plaster cast of a grooved column are scattered above and underneath four plexiglas sheets, which in a slightly staggered position hold down four photographic enlargements of a perspectival drawing of columns, placed close together on the ground so that they are slightly juxtaposed. Along the diagonals the images are specular to each other – the same negative is printed twice correctly and twice upside down; hence, the image, by dint of chasing itself, implodes.
The work harkens back to the theme of a previous version, which instead occupied an entire room (GPO-0478).

1984 Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Der Traum des Orpheus. Mythologie in der italienischen Gegenwartskunst 1967 bis 1984, 16 May - 1 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 176, not repr.; edition indicated as “1” in this entry.
1984 Spoleto, Palazzo Rosari Spada, XXVII Festival dei Due Mondi, Giulio Paolini. Casa di Lucrezio, 27 June - 16 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 6 p. 30, not repr.; edition indicated as “2” in this entry.
G. Paolini in the interview with S. Taylor, “A Conversation with Giulio Paolini”, in The Print Collector’s Newsletter 15, no. 5 (New York), November-December, 1984, p. 168; republished in Italian in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by M. Disch (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), pp. 199-200.
“Giulio Paolini. Casa di Lucrezio, 1981-1984”, in A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu 5, no. 10-11 (Rome), July, 1984, repr. p. 24 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984).
S. Taylor, “A Conversation with Giulio Paolini”, in The Print Collector’s Newsletter 15, no. 5 (New York), November-December, 1984, repr. p. 166 (exhibition view Spoleto 1984).
Belvedere dell’arte. Orizzonti, exhibition catalogue, Florence, Forte Belvedere (Milan: Skira editore, 2003), col. repr. p. 121 (with incorrect dimensions and erroneously dated “1984”).
M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 479 p. 491, repr. (exhibition view Spoleto 1984).
B. Satre, “Giulio Paolini, entre fragment et fragmentation”, in Influxus, online journal, 28 May 2014.
Entry by Maddalena Disch, 30/01/2026