MATERIALS: Black and white illustrated book, screw binding, 80 pages
DIMENSIONS: 40.5 × 28 cm
EDITION: Unknown
PUBLISHER: Achille Mauri – Krachmalnicoff editore
CATALOGUE: G_1973_205
A black-and-white illustrated artist’s book, printed by Achille Mauri – Krachmalnicoff editore on loose-leaf usoman paper, bound with three screws alluding to Futurist artist Fortunato Depero’s famous bolted book. Der Ventilator was the title of the pre-Dada Marxist magazine founded by Johannes Theodor Baargeld, Max Ernst and Hans Arp in Cologne in 1919. Sold on the streets and outside factories, the publication was suspended by the British Army after only six issues. In 1973, Mauri referenced its title and graphic stylistic features, adding the adjective ‘Politische’ to the title to emphasise its ideological content, plus the subtitle ‘Fabio Mauri, opere azioni [Works Actions], 70–73’. Der Politische Ventilator collates texts in four languages, photographs and press reviews related to the works Che cosa è il fascismo (inv. 3474), featuring the entire script, Ebrea (inv. 3476), Vomitare sulla Grecia (inv. 979) and Warum ein Gedanke einen Raum verpestet (inv. 700). Mauri conceived D.p.V. as a ‘political multiple’, calling it ‘an idea of a magazine-book with ideological content that, after the first issue, may be hosted in other magazines, even on a single page, or in other forms.’1
1. F. Mauri in Fabio Mauri. Opere e Azioni 1954–1994, catalogue of the exhibition (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome), edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Cossu, Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori e Carte Segrete, Rome, 1994, p. 132.
1974, Florence, Galleria Schema, Returned to sender, opening 9 February.
1978, Milan, Centro Internazionale di Brera, Tra Comunicazione e Significazione: Il libro d’artista, opening 21 June, curated by Ugo La Pietra, Vincenzo Ferrari.
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, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma in mostra 1970-1979, 13 September – 2 October, curated by Daniela Lancioni.
1997, Klagenfurt, Kunsthalle, Fabio Mauri. Male e bellezza / Das Böse und das Schöne, 24 April – 30 June, curated by Arnulf Rohsmann.
2000, Rome, Istituto Austriaco di Cultura, Fuori di qui, 19 June – 7 July, curated by Cecilia Casorati.
2011, Venice, LIV Esposizione internazionale d’arte di Venezia, Spanish Pavillon, L’inadeguato, 4 June – 27 November, curated by Dora Garcia, Katya Garcia-Anton.
2018, Castelbasso (Teramo), Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Fabio Mauri 1968-1978, 22 July – 2 September, curated by Laura Cherubini.
2019, Venice, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Mauri | Muntadas, 8 May – 10 September, curated by Laura Cherubini.
2024, Hamburg, 8. Salon, Il linguaggio della guerra, 26 October – 7 December, curated by Sara Codutti, Wolfgang Scheppe, Roberto Ohrt.
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. 130–132 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri: Male e bellezza – Das Böse und das Schöne, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, Klagenfurt, edited by Arnulf Rohsmann (Klagenfurt, 1997), p. 99 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Scritti in mostra. L’avanguardia come zona 1958-2008, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: il Saggiatore, 2008), p. 208 (ill.).
Federica Boràgina, Fabio Mauri. Che cosa è, se è, l’ideologia nell’arte (Catanzaro: Rubbettino editore, 2012), pp. 81–83, nn. 21–21/1 (ill.).
Italia Pop: L’arte negli anni del boom, exhibition catalogue, Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Mamiano di Traversetolo (Parma), edited by Walter Guadagnini, Stefano Roffi (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2016), p. 71.
Fabio Mauri 1968-1978, exhibition catalogue, Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Castelbasso (Teramo), edited by Laura Cherubini (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2018), pp. 19, 59 (ill.).
Valérie Da Costa, Fabio Mauri: le passé en actes (Dijon: Les presses du réel, 2018), no. 36, p. 76 (ill.).
After Pasolini: Visions of Today, exhibition catalogue, Center for Contemporary Art, The Ancient Bath, Plovdiv, edited by Bettina Steinbrügge, Benjamin Fellmann (Plovdiv: Art Today Association – Center for Contemporary Art, 2020), p. 129 (ill.).
