Pagani was born in a Jewish family in
Libya, just around the time when the country stopped being an Italian Colonial Administration. He spent his childhood and adolescence between Italy, Germany and France. This nonstop wandering about different cultures drove him to seek out a personal language that would enable him to express himself non-verbally, and he started drawing. In 1964 Pagani, at the age of twenty, had his first exhibition at the Pierre Picard Gallery in
Cannes, where he exhibited a group of Indian-ink drawings and engravings. The French poet Jean Rousselot wrote an enthusiastic review in
Planete, describing Pagani as a "Twenty-years-old Visionary". Among his first Italian collectors were Giorgio Soavi,
Federico Fellini, Bernardino Zapponi and the
Olivetti Collection. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to contribute a series of drawings for the
Planète Review edited by
Jacques Bergier and
Louis Pauwels, becoming one of the youngest exponents of the
Fantastic Realism. In 1965 Pagani illustrated books such as
Giuseppe Berto's
Fantarca (
Rizzoli) and
Aldous Huxley's
Brave New World (Club des Amis du Livre). Parallel to art, Pagani pursued an interest in music. His first Italian album was released in 1967. About two years later, the day after Colonel
Muammar Gaddafi's
1969 Libyan coup d'état, the police broke into Pagani's family's house in Tripoli. A hundred and fifty canvases and drawings were destroyed. His first French album, chronicling those events, was released in 1970. Pagani designed the covers of his records, and the stage designs of his shows. In 1971 Pagani had a solo exhibition at the
Théâtre de la Ville in Paris called ''Concerto d'Italie'' where he did a performance inside his drawings projected on a large screen by Laser Graphics Group. This was the first Diaporama exhibition staged in Europe. Pagani was interested in investigating the correlation among all the techniques he was to try out. Already in 1965 he had declared that "Engraving on stone, or vinyl, is the same thing. It is more important to establish one' s mental and emotional territory with all available means". In 1973 Pagani used documentary footage made available by
RAI to produce and direct a 27-minute movie-pamphlet entitled
Venise, amore mio which
Unesco defined as "the best vehicle of information on the dangers besetting Venice and its lagoon". The film was later broadcast on
Antenne 2 twice. In 1975 Pagani composed the music and designed the stage set for
Megalopolis, a total-opera based on
Medioevo Prossimo Venturo (The near future middleages) with a libretto by Italian futurologist Roberto Vacca.
Megalopolis was selected by the French Ministry of Culture for the re-opening of the Palais de Chaillot at the
Trocadero. It was subsequently staged at
Festival dei Due Mondi in
Spoleto. In 1976 it received the
Grand Prize of Academy Charles Cros. In 1975 Pagani composed the soundtrack for the Italian TV series
Marco Visconti. The opening theme, "Cavalli Ricamati" was a moderate success in the Italian charts. In 1977 Pagani experimented with abstraction, mostly with a video-synthesizers devised by the French electronics engineer Marcel Dupouy. Despite his keen interest in technology, Pagani never refrained from using paper, pencils, paints and brushes. Influenced by the Italian art movement
Arte povera, he started working with discarded materials he would collect from beaches and in dumps across Europe. His sculptures, mostly made of old shoes, were exhibited at Centro Internazionale di Brera,
Milan and
Palazzo dei Diamanti in
Ferrara. Pagani died of
leukaemia, aged 44 in
Palm Springs. He is buried in the
Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv. A commemorative plate celebrating his life is permanently installed in
Portofino, on a path leading to his house. ==Bibliography==