Untitled (Souvenir) c. 1973

Giulio Paolini made this "Untitled (Souvenir)" from chromogenic film positives and a frame, but it's that shimmering fabric that gets me going. It’s all about surface and reflection, like a memory fading in and out. The fabric looks almost liquid, like the way light shifts on water. Then you notice these small, dark squares pinned at each corner. They are little windows, like souvenir photos, but into what? It's as though the fabric is a space, a plane, or a moment in time, and these images are anchored to it. Paolini often plays with perception, and this work feels like a delicate balance between presence and absence. The fabric shimmers, while the images are dark and still, and the contrast reminds me of Gerhard Richter's blurred photographs, where the clarity of the image is always just out of reach. It's not about answers, but about the poetry of seeing.