MILAN.- To conclude the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Teatro Franco Parenti, Giulio Paolini was invited to create a permanent work for the building of the Bagni Misteriosi, adjacent to the historic seat of the Milanese theater.

At the center of the installation titled A.R.S. scaenica is a white plinth, surmounted by a miniature cardboard theater hosting a plaster sphere. Two stretchers leaning up against the plinth hold a globe in precarious balance. A red stage curtain that falls from the plinth to the floor holds nine photographic panels having to do with the history of the Teatro Franco Parenti, scattered among several gilt frames. A photographic reproduction of the nymph Echo hangs upside-down from the ceiling, as if in the act of falling upon the center of the representation. Three other gilt frames hang from the ceiling at various heights.

The key to interpretation lies in the enigmatic white sphere inside the theater, which symbolically represents the "absolute truth" of the theater, that is, the mystery of fiction, and the miracle of representation. At the same time, the immaculate sphere also evokes the ideal completeness (as opposed to the globe as the emblem of contingent reality) that the artist untiringly seeks to set his eyes on and hold onto between one work and another, even though any attempt to make contact is ruinous, as is suggested by the theme of the fall.

In the author's own words: "The fall of objects and figures dropping from above onto a virtual stage is a mise-en-scène for the incomparable fiction itself of the idea of theatre. Echo's fate is juxtaposed with that of the Artist, constantly in search of Beauty albeit aware of the vanity of his desire." Similarly, the gilt frames evoke the ideal painting, “invoked over and over again, but each time missed – inaccessible, ungraspable, impossible". The theatrical dimension thus intersects with the artistic one, the references to the theatrical context are at the same time an allegory of the basic idea that the author reformulates from one work to another, that is, "the ever renewed challenge that is the mise-en-scène of a work of art."

Paolini also included four works on paper in the acquisition of the work by the Milanese theater. The works on paper were specially conceived, and expand the homage to the theatrical dimension, as well as to the history of the Teatro Franco Parenti.

For the occasion, Paolini also made a print edition, a gift for the Teatro Franco Parenti's supporters. Sipario is a lithograph in 30 copies, each of which is distinguished by an original intervention by the artist, using a variety of media, at the center of the plate.