Page 79 - Studio International - September October 1975

full stops grouped together in the
form of letters. So the material
became thought and was
transformed into words.
Vettor Pisani's performance
presented a man and a woman
dressed in evening clothes to
indicate their social condition:
bourgeois. The scene took place
to the accompaniment of Satie's
music. The woman was as
immobile as stone next to a table,
and on the table was a glass phial
containing a human foetus. On
the wall was a photograph of a
small boy watching the scene. Giulio Paolini have to be solved within the Also it becomes an 'applied
Then the man, with his forehead Suite no. I 1974 context of art: switching to other material' of creation,
Pencil on canvas
painted gold, described dance 3 panels, 40 x 120 cm total domains would leave the issues linguistically dependent on the
steps round the table and his intact, and pose possibly new visualized ideas. Zaza tries to
(vision is something 'already' seen
immobile woman. The clothes of problems typical of the other field. understand and define the
by the camera) and the image
both were like the stamp and While Paolini questions in his behaviour of man and his
then becomes, according to
attributes which provide the most pictures their existence, and the mental universe within daily,
Paolini, a critical copy of reality.
marked stereotype of their This paradox introduced in his description confirms through a necessary, contradictory, private
bourgeois condition. work - and in this book - denies a text the availability and possibility time and space. He structures the
The bourgeois hero continued direct reading of his art; a of space for them, a new direction elements and characters of his
his macabre dance to the sound complex game of circular is developing among younger photos, generally of his mother,
of Satie's mechanical-sentimental approaches subtracts the values members of the Italian art scene. father and home, much like a
music. A symbolic dance The metaphorical, critical values metteur en scene (he never depicts
of evidence from the total vision
between life and death, between of the pictures, while forcing a of the work seem to be of greater himself) in order to criticize the
the direct death of the foetus on structured analysis of the issues importance, and the technique is 'space of being' through his own
the table and the death that straightforwardly photographic. 'style of negation.' His recent
involved. Paolini decides that art
would come to him through his is an enclosed entity to which he This trend originated in Michele show at the Marilena Bonomo
son, the living son staring at him Zaza and represents a unique gallery further clarified the outline
doesn't add anything at all. He
like Oedipus from the photograph. doesn't question the position phenomenon in a milieu which is of a development that is among
The woman remained motionless either of the artist or art: he so hysterically reacting to the the most coherent, while uneasy
by the table in her passive merely respects the work 'art' and apparent invasion of American and intricate, experiences of the
condition as an instrument of its elements, modest as they can artists. One is virtually fed up younger generation. Zaza doesn't
procreation, while the man with be. As a painter he organizes an with 'shows' in empty private consider the problem of art; art
his golden forehead, symbol of the outcome that has to be within the lofts and with non-professionals simply remains a proposition for a
elected, of truth and immortality tenuous area of art which acting as artists who fill the areas critical inspection of the elements
(as class), continued his macabre analyses itself. of Rome and Milan while of reality. His work lies at a
dance rite, the exorcizing Paolini has had a seminal refusing to state, show or do parallel to events, and has
movement that liberates neither influence on Italian art since the anything. documentary connotations whilst
from life nor from death. late sixties. His work - together Zaza, born in 1948, is possibly employing metaphors, symbols
Achille Bonito Oliva with the art of Jannis Kounellis the only really serious Italian and references intertwined with
and Mario Merz - set the accent entry to the 1975 Paris Biennale what he considers the main
Giulio Paolini and subject of his analysis: data,
on a critical inspection of reality (of three other selections one is
Michele Zaza maintaining the classical apparently Argentinian, one documents, texts, in a word reality
Significantly enough the major 'excellence' of a picture and Swiss and one German). (which is essentially a fiction).
art event of the past few months in avoiding polemical or ideological Photography becomes Luca M. Venturi
Italy has been the publication of a misplacements. Paolini seems to anonymous, according to Zaza,
book. Giulio Paolini has say that if the making of art when it fulfils its function of Michele Zaza
prepared a survey of his work implies certain problems they faithfully presenting a concept. Mimesis 1975
Black and white photo
between 1960-1974 for Einaudi
publishers (a major company not
specializing in art editions), with
a prefatory note by halo Calvino,
one of the leading Italian writers
of resent years. A book by a
painter, rather than about him,
edited in the same way as
Beckett, Borges, Ferlinghetti,
Breton and Marinetti. It consists
mainly of photographs,
statements and interviews
collected under the title IDEM,
which was also used in a series of
recent shows held by Paolini. The
collection indicates at least two
major guidelines in his work. His
attitude and the material ; or
ambiguity and wit applied to the
art object. Paolini is a classic,
more than a conceptual of
dubious connotations or a
painter of shivering pigments: he
respects painting and he needs to
write about art. The painting and
its description are thus, according
to Paolini, two elements each
contributing to illustrate its own
original quality.On the other hand
the text is the uncovering of
memory concealed within the
picture.
Photography plays a major role
within the book. Photos allow the
author to watch the painting
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