GIULIO PAOLINI. THREE BY THREE (EVERYONE IS THE OTHER OR NOBODY)

Giulio Paolini investigates the nature of producing art, the relationship between the artist, the art object and the viewer. In his work, the classical world is a constant and problematic reference.
On the occasion of the Galleria Borghese’s exhibition dedicated to Antonio Canova, Paolini presents his installation from 1999, Tre per tre (ognuno è l’altro o nessuno) [Three by Three (everyone is the other or nobody)]. In this new interpretative context, Paolini engages with the great neoclassical artist in the museum that is home to one of his best-known sculptures.
Three plaster casts of the same seated figure, borrowed from L’Étude du dessin (1748-49) by the French painter Jean-Siménon Chardin, are arranged in the spaces of the Bird House: one in the central vestibule, in front of the entrance, and the other two in the two lateral spaces. The figures are the same but captured in slightly different attitudes, embodying different roles or rather, different moments in the same character’s existence.
The first is the model, posing for a portrait; the second is the portrait artist, engrossed in drawing; the third is the viewer: of the still unfinished portrait, of the act of creating a portrait, or of the work that we ourselves are observing. Three protagonists or three guests, of the place of the work or the place where the work is located, where the viewer is also a guest.
Without explicitly quoting him, he alludes to Canova through the chronology of the suit as well as the practice of working with plaster, through the sense of the copy and working from real life, through the artist’s act, which repeats through the ages.
“I know that I am not and have never been Antonio Canova. I also know, however, that I do not know who I am: everyone is the other or nobody”. (Giulio Paolini)

The exhibition is part of the project Committenze Contemporanee, conceived by Anna Coliva and realised thanks to Unicredit & l’Arte, curated by Anna Coliva for the Galleria Borghese and Anna Mattirolo for MAXXI. Paolini’s work was intended to be loaned to the MAXXI by the Unicredit Group.
The exhibition has a dedicated volume published by Electa, containing a critical text by Achille Bonito Oliva.