COMPONENTS: Suitcases, bags, cases, leather cases, canvas, cardboard, wood, metal, discs, water bottle, umbrella handles, paper prints, potted ivy plant
DIMENSIONS: 400 × 400 × 60 cm
PHOTOGRAPHY: Elisabetta Catalano
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: I_1993_441
‘I rebuilt Il Muro Occidentale o del Pianto as the remaining wall of Solomon’s Temple is known in Jerusalem, with suitcases, in an attempt to represent that necessary wall of ideal or intellectual faith, among all the baggage in transit, or forced to expatriate, finding or taking with them incinerated or shattered identities. It is a construction of dissimilar provenances that stands on its own, with no other support than its own necessary complexity.’1 Mauri added this monumental new element after being invited by Achille Bonito Oliva to re-present the Ebrea (inv. 3476) installation and give a performance at the 45th Venice Biennale. A 4 × 4 metre self-supporting installation, Il Muro Occidentale o del Pianto consists of eighty-two suitcases made of leather, canvas, metal and cardboard, all different from one another, stacked to form a wall, aligned on the front, irregular on the back. The suitcases are marked by signs of travel: their labels have their owners’ names on them, stamps from different countries and borders. They are all closed except for one, to the lower right, which opens to show the historic 1971 Ebrea exhibition poster, beneath which is a stack of photocopies: a text in four languages that the public is invited to pick up. Stuffed into the spaces between the suitcases are items as diverse as records, file folders, an account book, a canvas roll and umbrella handles: ‘Israelites stick little slips of paper with prayers into the nooks and crannies of The Western or Wailing Wall: these are about the soul, affections, bodies, life to be lived on earth. I symbolised them with a single roll of cloth. A kind of prayer of Art. The Wall is the place, say the Israelites, and I have assumed this, where God undoubtedly hears: it is therefore the place of value. A plant also grows there, a sign of life that dead, square stones or empty, inert suitcases cannot prevent.’2
1. F. Mauri, ‘Il Muro Occidentale o del Pianto’, exhibition text, 1993, published in F. Mauri, Scritti in mostra. L'avanguardia come zona 1958–2008, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: il Saggiatore, 2008), p. 87.
2. Ibid.
1993, Venice, Giardini di Castello, Italian Pavilion, XLV Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – Punti cardinali dell’arte, 14 June – 10 October, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.
1994, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Fabio Mauri. Opere e Azioni 1954-1994, 21 June – 5 October, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Cossu.
1995, London, Royal Festival Hall Galleries, After Auschwitz: Responses to the Holocaust in Contemporary Art, 26 February – 17 April, curated by Monica Bohm-Duchen.
1995, Manchester, Manchester City Art Galleries, After Auschwitz: Responses to the Holocaust in Contemporary Art, 23 May – 2 July, curated by Monica Bohm-Duchen (travelling: 1995, London).
1995, Sunderland, The City Library and Arts Centre, After Auschwitz: Responses to the Holocaust in Contemporary Art, 9 October – 18 November, curated by Monica Bohm-Duchen (travelling: 1995, London).
1995-1996, Edinburgh, City Art Center, After Auschwitz: Responses to the Holocaust in Contemporary Art, 2 December 1995 – 20 January 1996, curated by Monica Bohm-Duchen (travelling: 1995, London).
1995, Nottingham, Angel Row Gallery, After Auschwitz: Responses to the Holocaust in Contemporary Art, July–August, curated by Monica Bohm-Duchen (travelling: 1995, London).
1996, Potsdam, Kulturhaus Altes Rathaus, After Auschwitz: Responses to the Holocaust in Contemporary Art, 17 February – 10 March, curated by Monica Bohm-Duchen (travelling: 1995, London).
1996, Rome, Galleria Diagonale, Fabio Mauri. Il muro occidentale, 15 May – 7 June, curated by Massimo Riposati.
1997, Bologna, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Materiali Anonimi: Ultimi quarant’anni, 28 February – 4 May, curated by Danilo Eccher, Dede Auregli.
1997-1998, Trento / Rovereto, Mart – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Palazzo delle Albere (Trento), Archivio del ’900 (Rovereto), Trash: Quando i rifiuti diventano arte, 11 September 1997 – 11 January 1998, curated by Lea Vergine.
1998, Vaiano (Prato), Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci at La Cartaia, Ecce Homo: Elogio dell’Altro, 27 February – 31 March, curated by Giandomenico Semeraro.
1998, Andria, Palazzo Ducale, Il Muro Occidentale o del Pianto, 11 September – 31 October.
1999-2000, Lecce, Castle of Charles V, Spazi in luce: da Caravaggio oltre Fontana, 23 December 1999 – 27 February 2000, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.
2000, Frascati, Scuderie Aldobrandini, La memoria simbolica, 15 June – 11 July, curated by Massimo Riposati.
2000-2001, Rome, Scuderie Papali al Quirinale and Mercati di Traiano, Novecento Arte e Storia in Italia, 30 December 2000 – 1 April 2001, curated by Maurizio Calvesi, Paul Ginsborg.
2003, Tourcoing-Lille, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Fabio Mauri – L’écran mental, 1 March – 27 April, curated by Dominique Païni.
2004, Milan, Ex Cartiere Binda, Cantieri dell’arte, 15 October – 15 November, curated by Angela Madesani.
2005, Bergamo, GAMeC – Teatro sociale, Fabio Mauri. Il Muro Occidentale o del Pianto. Ebrea, 28 January – 20 February.
2006, Genoa, Palazzo Ducale and Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Le forme della coscienza, 21 January – 12 February, curated by Sandra Solimano.
2008-2009, Prato, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, 1988: vent’anni prima, vent’anni dopo, 1 November 2008 – 15 February 2009, curated by Marco Bazzini.
2008, Herford, MARTa Herford, Ad Absurdum: Energies of the absurd from modernity to contemporary art, 18 April – 27 July.
2010, Venice, Fondazione Cini, Estetica di un pensiero, 28–31 January.
2010-2011, Rome, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Spazio. Dalle collezioni di arte e architettura del Maxxi, 30 May 2010 – 23 January 2011, curated by Pippo Ciorra, Alessandro D’Onofrio, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Gabi Scardi.
2012, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Fabio Mauri – The End, 19 June – 23 September, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
2014, Buenos Aires, Fundación PROA, Fabio Mauri, 6 September – 23 November, curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio.
2015, Venice, Giardini di Castello, Central Pavilion, 56. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – All the World’s Futures, 9 May – 22 November, curated by Okwui Enwezor.
2016-2017, Naples, Museo Madre, Retrospettiva a luce solida, 26 November 2016 – 6 March 2017, curated by Laura Cherubini, Andrea Viliani.
2018-2019, Milan, Memoriale della Shoah, Ricordi futuri 4.0, 14 November 2018 – 3 February 2019, curated by Ermanno Tedeschi.
2020, Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, Sala dei Gigli, Il Muro Occidentale o del Pianto, 27 January – 23 February, curated by Giovanni Iovane, Sergio Risaliti.
2021-2022, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Corpus Domini: Dal corpo glorioso alle rovine dell’anima, 27 October 2021 – 30 January 2022, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
Franco Di Matteo, “La seduzione glaciale di Fabio Mauri”, in Casting, Rome, November 1993, p. 45 (ill.).
Francesco Poli, “Ebrea e il Muro Occidentale di Fabio Mauri”, in XLV Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte: Punti cardinali dell’arte, exhibition catalogue, La Biennale, Venice, edited by Achille Bonito Oliva (Venice: Marsilio, 1993), p. 50.
Maria D’Alesio, “Il Muro Occidentale o del Pianto. 1993”, in Fabio Mauri. Opere e Azioni 1954-1994, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Cossu (Milan / Rome: Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori / Carte Segrete, 1994), pp. 266–269 (ill.).
Virus, no. 1, Milan, 1994, p. 16.
Roma in mostra: Annuario delle mostre d’arte a Roma 1994, edited by CINZIA SALVI, MARIA RITA BONI, ANNA MARIA DI STEFANO, VITINA PORTOGHESE (Rome: Edizioni Joyce & Co., 1995), no. 57, p. 117 (ill.).
Iconostasi, no. 0, Rome, June 1995, p. 15 (ill.).
After Auschwitz: Responses to the Holocaust in Contemporary Art, exhibition catalogue, Royal Festival Hall Galleries, London, edited by Monica Bohm-Duchen (London: Lund Humphries Publishers Limited, 1995), p. 121 (ill.).
Pluri Verso, no. 1, Etas Libri, Milan, December 1995, p. 68 (ill.).
Dizionario degli artisti italiani contemporanei, edited by Giancarlo Politi (Milan: Flash Art Books, 1996), p. 191 (ill.).
Ludovico Pratesi, “Un muro di valige”, in la Repubblica, Rome, May 1996, .
Arte Italiana: Materiali anomali, exhibition catalogue, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, edited by Danilo Eccher, Dede Auregli (Turin: Hopefulmonster editore, 1997), no. 40, p. 77 (ill.).
Trash. Quando i rifiuti diventano arte, exhibition catalogue, Mart – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, edited by Lea Vergine (Milan: Electa, 1997), pp. 23, 164 (ill.).
Il popolo di Mosè: mostra su cultura e civiltà ebraica, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Ducale, Andria, edited by Giordano Berti (Faenza: Edizioni Le Tarot, 1998), pp. 50–53 (ill.).
Ecce Homo: Elogio dell’Altro, exhibition catalogue, Museo Pecci at La Cartaia, Vaiano (Prato), edited by Giandomenico Semeraro (Florence: Alinea Editrice, 1998), p. 63 (ill.).
Spazi In Luce: da Caravaggio oltre Fontana, exhibition catalogue, Castle of Charles V, Lecce, edited by Achille Bonito Oliva (Milan: Centro Arte Maiocchi, 1999), p. 57 (ill.).
Ludovico Pratesi, Emanuela Nobile Mino, Guida agli artisti contemporanei a Roma #1 (Rome: Edizioni Nuova Anterem, 2000), p. 48 (ill.).
Novecento. Arte e storia in Italia, exhibition catalogue, Scuderie Papali al Quirinale and Mercati di Traiano, Rome, edited by Federica Pirani (Milan: Skira, 2000), no. VII. 28, p. 514 (ill.), p. 531.
La memoria simbolica, exhibition catalogue, Scuderie Aldobrandini, Frascati (Rome), edited by Massimo Riposati (Rome: Diagonale, 2000), pp. 6–16 (ill.).
Tiziana Litteri, “La provocazione è il mio mestiere. Intervista con Fabio Mauri”, in Ars, Year IV, no. 10, Milan, October 2000, p. 130 (ill.).
Ludovico Pratesi, Emanuela Nobile Mino, Guida agli artisti contemporanei a Roma #2 (Rome: Edizioni Nuova Anterem, 2001), p. 48 (ill.).
Giuseppe Varchetta, Le tracce dello sguardo (Rome: Luca Sossella Editore, 2001), pp. 61–62 (ill.).
L’ospite armeno, exhibition catalogue, Giardini di Palazzo Zenobio and Loggia del Temanza, Venice, edited by Corrado Bologna, Silvia Bre, Riccardo Giagni, Gianfranco Salvatore (Venice: Oemme Edizioni, 2001), pp. 50–51 (ill.).
Belvedere italiano: Linee di tendenza nell’arte contemporanea 1945-2001, exhibition catalogue, Ujazdowski Castle – Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, edited by Achille Bonito Oliva (Rome: Gangemi editore, 2001), p. 65 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. L’écran mental, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing-Lille, edited by Dominique Païni (Lille, 2003), p. 21 (ill.).
Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer, exhibition catalogue, La Biennale, Venice, edited by Francesco Bonami (Venice: Marsilio, 2003), p. 639 (ill.).
Ludovico Pratesi, “L'uomo che proiettò Gesù sul corpo di Pasolini”, in Il Venerdì, no. 780, Rome, 28 February 2003, p. 101 (ill.).
Manou Farine, “Fabio Mauri, l'indispensable hommage”, in L’oeil, no. 546, Artclair editions, Lille, April 2003, p. 107 (ill.).
Sophie Flouquet, “Mauri fait son show”, in L’Art d’aujourd’hui, no. 24, Boulogne-sur-Seine, 7-13 March 2003, p. 10 (ill.).
Adachiara Zevi, “L'arte ‘saggistica’ di Fabio Mauri”, in L’architettura – cronache e storia, no. 575, Rome, 2003, p. 671 (ill.).
Cantieri dell’arte / Art worksites: 14 artisti e uno spazio industriale, exhibition catalogue, Ex Cartiere Binda, Milan, edited by Angela Madesani (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2004), pp. 20, 54–55, 133–134 (ill.).
Federico Sardella, “Fabio Mauri. Teatro sociale / GAMeC”, in Arte e Critica, Year XII, no. 42, Rome, April–June 2005, p. 76 (ill.).
Stefano Bigazzi, “La Giornata della Memoria Rwanda come Auschwitz”, in la Repubblica – Genoa, Rome, 20 January 2006, p. IX (ill.).
Giovanna Le Noci, “Fabio Mauri”, in Osservare il pensiero riflesso, exhibition catalogue, Atelier Arco Amoroso and Mole Vanvitelliana, Ancona, edited by Gianluca Ranzi (Grottaferrata, Rome: ArteCom editore, 2007), p. 98 (ill.).
Claudio Abate: Installation & Performance Art, edited by Achille Bonito Oliva (Milan: Photology, 2007), p. 208 (ill.).
Ad Absurdum, exhibition catalogue, MARTa Herford, Herford (Leipzig: Kerber Verlag, 2008), p. 392 (ill.).
Arianna Di Genova, “Quell'avanguardia che non finisce mai”, in il manifesto, Rome, 5 June 2008, (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Scritti in mostra. L’avanguardia come zona 1958-2008, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: il Saggiatore, 2008), cover, pp. 86–89, 256 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), pp. 311–322, 384–387 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. Un sognatore della ragione, exhibition catalogue, Castello di Miramare, Trieste, edited by Federica Alberton (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2010), p. 10 (ill.).
Spazio: Dalle collezioni d’arte e d’architettura del Maxxi, exhibition catalogue, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, edited by Stefano Chiodi, Domitilla Dardi (Milan: Electa, 2010), p. 290 (ill.).
Elena Pirazzoli, A partire da ciò che resta. Forme memoriali dal 1945 alle macerie del Muro di Berlino (Reggio Emilia: Diabasis, 2010), pp. 167, 191, no. 6 (ill.).
Flash Art, Year XLIII, no. 288, Milan, November 2010, p. 93 (ill.).
Elena Pirazzoli, “Il trauma e la cura”, in Studi e ricerche di storia contemporanea, Year 39, no. 74, Bergamo, December 2010, p. 68.
Paolo Colagrande, “Gli intellettuali sono tutti morti. La performance di Fabio Mauri”, in l’Unità, Year 87, no. 256, Rome, 20 September 2010, p. 35 (ill.).
Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Italia in opera: La nostra identità attraverso le arti visive (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2011), cover (ill.).
Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna dalla A alla Z, edited by Maria Vittoria Marini Clarelli, Martina De Luca, Giovanna Coltelli (Milan: Electa, 2011), p. 166 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. The End, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Reale, Milan, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: Skira, 2012), pp. 114–120 (ill.).
Lea Mattarella, “Fabio Mauri - Quando l'arte mette in scena tutto l'orrore del Novecento”, in la Repubblica, Year 37, no. 185, Rome, 5 August 2012, p. 45 (ill.).
Lea Mattarella, “La storia come tragedia”, in Arte, no. 467, Milan, July 2012, pp. 78–79 (ill.).
Silvano Manganaro, “La storia tra furia e memoria”, in Il Giornale dell'Arte – Vernissage, Year XXX, no. 321, Turin, June 2012, p. 9 (ill.).
Maurizio Cecchetti, “Fabio Mauri, l'antitotalitario”, in Avvenire, Milan, 3 July 2012, p. 24 (ill.).
Umberto Eco, “Uno smarrimento convinto”, in la Repubblica, Year 37, no. 122, Rome, 24 May 2012, p. 41 (ill.).
Marco Vallora, “Mauri. La colpa si espia con l'arte”, in La Stampa, Year 146, no. 168, Turin, 19 June 2012, p. 34 (ill.).
Federica Boràgina, Fabio Mauri. Che cosa è, se è, l’ideologia nell’arte (Catanzaro: Rubbettino editore, 2012), pp. 131–133, no. 35 (ill.).
Marta Baiardi, Alberto Cavaglion, Dopo i testimoni: Memorie, storiografie e narrazioni della deportazione razziale (Rome: Viella, 2013), cover, p. 375 (ill.).
Elisabetta Catalano, Work with Fabio Mauri, edited by Laura Cherubini (Milan: Maretti Editore, 2013), pp. 108–111 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, exhibition catalogue, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, edited by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio (Buenos Aires, 2014), p. 43, 52–54 (ill.).
56. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte: All the World’s Futures: Guida breve, exhibition catalogue, La Biennale, Venice, edited by Okwui Enwezor (Venice: Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia / Marsilio, 2015), pp. 42–43 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. Archivio di memoria, edited by Dionigi Mattia Gagliardi (Rome: Numero cromatico editore, 2015), p. 151 (ill.).
Arte, Milan, May 2015, p. 76 (ill.).
Raja El Fani, “Godfathering political art”, in Damn, no. 50, Gent, May–June 2015, p. 100 (ill.).
Corriere della Sera, Milan, 6 May 2015, p. 37 (ill.).
56. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte: All the World’s Futures: Mostra, exhibition catalogue, La Biennale, Venice, edited by Okwui Enzewor (Venice: Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia / Marsilio, 2015), p. 615.
Doppiozero, 13 December 2016 (https://www.doppiozero.com/fabio-mauri-diffidenza), .
Ricordi futuri 4.0: Cosa c’è in fondo al binario, exhibition catalogue, Memoriale della Shoah, Milan, edited by Ermanno Tedeschi (Milan: Proedi Editore, 2018), pp. 102–103.
Valérie Da Costa, Fabio Mauri: le passé en actes (Dijon: Les presses du réel, 2018), no. 90, pp. 158–159 (ill.).
Giacomo Marramao, L’esperimento del mondo: Mistica e filosofia nell’arte di Fabio Mauri (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2018), no. 1, (ill.).
Giandomenico Semeraro, Vertigo: Lo spirituale nell’arte d’oggi (Florence: Mandragora, 2018), p. 49 (ill.).
Zeusi, Year V, no. 8–9, Naples, 2019, p. 170, (ill.).
Laura Cherubini, Contro corrente: I grandi solitari dell’arte italiana: Alighiero Boetti, Gino De Dominicis, Luciano Fabro, Fabio Mauri, Vettor Pisani, Marisa Merz (Milan: Christian Marinotti edizioni, 2020), p. 123 (ill.).
Giacomo Marramao, “Arte come esperimento del mondo. Ricordo di Fabio Mauri”, in Arte mistica comunità, edited by Veronica Caciolli (Bari: WIP Edizioni, 2021), p. 54 (ill.).
Corpus Domini: Dal corpo glorioso alle rovine dell’anima, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Reale, Milan, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Venice: Marsilio, 2021), pp. 124–125 (ill.).
Mauri, edited by Flaminio Gualdoni (Milan: Corriere della Sera, 2022), cover, pp. 66–69, 91 (ill.).
