Schermo (Screen) composed of white canvas stretched over a wooden frame, set in a black box frame. In the centre of the picture, the word ‘FINE’ is erased by a stroke of red crayon, replaced by ‘vive’. In what was to be one of his final Schermi, Mauri reversed the leitmotif of ‘The End’, a hallmark of his work since 1959. ‘In my Schermi, from the very beginning, the words “The End” sometimes appear, as they appear, used to appear, and sometimes still do in the movies. Is it death (as I have been asked repeatedly for years)? That’s as may be. Indeed it is certain, because death is certain. But it is also a sign of delimitation for a story, for a morality enclosed in a narrative time frame. Each work, in effect, extracts a portion of present meaning from the chance or endlessness of life, from its inexplicable inexplicability.’1 For greater insight into the concept of ‘schermo’ in Mauri’s work, see the introductory essays.

1. F. Mauri, ‘Arte e cinema’, interview by G. Di Pietrantonio, in Perché non parli?, edited by G. Di Pietrantonio,
F. Guerisoli, G. Scardi, Silvia Editrice, Milan, 2010, p. 195.