- Artist
- Emilio Prini 1943 – 2016
- Original title
- Fermacarte, Marzo 1968, Genova (seconda versione, Galleria Gianenzo Sperone, Torino, 1969)
- Medium
- 10 photographs, gelatin silver print on paper, lead, metal alloy and plastic
- Dimensions
- Overall display dimensions variable
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Ruben Levi 2014
- Reference
- T14186
Display caption
Emilio Prini was born in Stresa, Verbano, Italy, and was included in the first arte povera shows. In 1968 he exhibited a work called Paperweight in which he laid down lead weights on a stack of five photographs of him moving through spaces. This is the second version of Paperweight, dating from 1969, and presented that year in Turin. The artist considers it an open work, with no fixed configuration. In this installation, a stack of ten photographs lies beside 230 kilograms of lead weights: bars, plastic sacks of shot, rolled sheets and bricks. The top photograph in the stack shows the artist's partner, Grazia Austoni, carrying their son on the streets of Genoa. The massive bulk of the lead weights creates a sense of heaviness that is countered by the motion of the bodies, fleetingly caught as they walked past the camera lens. This configuration was worked out in discussion with the artist in 2015; the artist sees the top photograph as a homage to his family.
Gallery label, July 2015
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