Seven rooms installed by Giulio Paolini at Palazzo Forti: a fascinating cross-section of the work of a protagonist of the Italian art scene over the last fifty years.
[Giulio Paolini / International Koinè Prize 2000 for the career] “The enigmas found throughout his work and the awareness of a problematic ‘vision’ that underlines the fragile borderline between presence and absence, between the existence of things and their inexpressible virtual nature, have made Paolini’s language an unavoidable reference point in the cultural panorama of the last forty years.” These are the words of Giorgio Cortenova, director of Palazzo Forti in Verona, site of a fine exhibition of works of the Italian artist honored with an important award for his career.
The volume, containing critical contributions by a number of contemporary art experts, presents seven “rooms” Paolini installed in the spaces of Palazzo Forti, retracing his creative itinerary. The rooms are not new works, as they have all been utilized in other exhibitions. But as the artist himself writes, “they all declare their newness”, rediscovering and renewing their original image here. Placed one beside the next, the works even seem to construct a single work, coinciding with the entire exhibition.
Verona, 2001-2002