Giulio Paolini

Giulio Paolini was born in 1940 in Genoa and now lives in Turin, where he still works as a sculptor and photographer. He is considered one of the main figures of conceptual art in Italy. Graduating from the Giambattista Bodoni State Industrial Technical School of Graphics and Photography in 1959, in the 1960s he developed a speculative form of art influenced by his desire to cast an analytical eye on the work of art as an object. He places it at the centre of an installation to question its place in space. With this approach, he questions the idea of scenography, forcing new reflections on how a work of art is displayed. Later he began referring to Ancient art, which he placed in a dialogue with the practices of his day. Today, his work draws inspiration from the relationship between himself, the creation and its viewer. All the pieces created since the 2000s, under many different forms, contribute to express this triangular relationship. Sometimes he finds himself in the centre of his work, sometimes it is a painting, a frame or a fragment of a sculpture, and sometimes it is a third party who is not supposed to be anything other than an observer.

This puts into question the very concept of exhibition, in a vision that mixes contemporary art and ancient philosophy. Giulio Paolini’s work is exhibited in the most prestigious galleries around the world.

PINTON had never before worked with an artist like Giuilo Paolini, who found in arts and crafts a new outlet for thought and experimentation. Like the main body of his art, the tapestry based on Paolini’s work tells of the place occupied by centuries-old practices in the creative process, and of the necessary interrogations of an artist on his relationship with his creation.