Nove particolari in due tempi (Nine Details in Two Stages)

The ensemble of nine sheets originates from the plate that reproduces a male figure (taken from Abraham Bosse’s handbook on perspective, Les perspecteurs, 1647-48), associated with the reproduction of a hand intent on drawing (borrowed from Diderot’s Encyclopédie). When the work is displayed – following the artist’s instructions – the drawing of the visual cone extends to the other eight sheets, each of which reproducing the ensemble of the nine plates. In each sheet, the rectangle corresponding to the position of the sheet itself in the entire composition is marked by a fragment that reproduces a view of the sea (in the sheets below the median “horizon line”) or of the sky (in the sheets above the median axis). Each of the blue rectangles also features the inscription of a letter, so that together they spell out the name Mnemosyne, the mother of the nine Muses. The title refers to the nine sheets included in the edition and the possibility of using the object at two different stages: as a closed volume or as an open composition, to be arranged on the wall. Nove particolari in due tempi aims to be a tribute by the artist to the device of vision, in a synthesis between historical sources and his very own language.