MATERIALS: Collage on paper
DIMENSIONS: 73 × 102.3 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Titled, signed and dated on the recto, lower right: ‘“Assenza della memoria” Fabio Mauri 71’
PROVENANCE: The artist; private collection, Giulianova (Teramo); private collection, Giulianova (Teramo); Auction House Finarte (Milan, June 2026)
COLLECTION: Santiago Mauri, Milan
CATALOGUE: C_1971_201
Collage in various materials on paper divided into two halves, including a miniature of the work Schermi in legni bianchi (inv. 168) and a white-painted film with three frames drawn on it, featuring the words ‘FOOT’ and ‘PICTURE’. In the centre, handwritten on a sheet of white paper, a deliberately illegible text states the title in the incipit: Assenza della memoria (Absence of Memory). This work was part of the Disegni collage sul fascismo set, made between 1970 and 1972, characterised by two black bands along the upper and lower edges of the sheet, and bands that transverse the composition through windows reminiscent of film frames. Many works in this series employ opal transparent paper to screen the underlying collage, plus side bands with rounded corners similar to ‘barn doors’ on spotlights. As specified in the titles, the collages refer to historical and private events: Bombardamento di Bologna, Affondamento dell’U.BOOT, Scomparsa di Pontecorvo da Bologna, Vita di Lulu de la Falaise and Stanza dei conti (inv. 201, 206, 207, 243, 1127, 1132).
2018, Castelbasso (Teramo), Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Fabio Mauri 1968-1978, 22 July – 2 September, curated by Laura Cherubini.
Fabio Mauri 1968-1978, exhibition catalogue, Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Castelbasso (Teramo), edited by Laura Cherubini (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2018), p. 38 (ill.).