Format 4:3, English, colour, sound, 32 min.
OTHER AUTHORS: Kate Craig, General Idea
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: V_1978_235
Artist’s video, made by Fabio Mauri, Kate Craig and the General Idea collective, produced by the Western Front Society of Vancouver in 1978. ‘It’s a video split into two parts […] In the first part, titled News from Europe, some battle scenes from the film Joan of Arc are projected onto my unbuttoned shirt. Via these film scenes and my own intervention, I present a visualisation of the artist’s role, constantly “battling” against the world. In the second part, News from Europe/Vegetables, interpreting my text, four young artists discuss my philosophy. The aim is to challenge the notion of the European artist, who sees values like youth, equilibrium and happiness as mere facades. Exaggerated Californian vegetables in shape and colour emerge from the artist’s mouth and hands. On a chalkboard, I then write my formula of the “error in calculation and judgement”, a pseudo-physical theory I often present in my works. I inscribe the formula; beneath are the vegetables, which for me are akin to forms of thought. The young people debate whether a more fitting venue for me would be a clinic or a museum. There’s no difference, the answer is, “There’s nothing better or worse for him than Europe”.’1
1. F. Mauri in A. Madesani, Le icone fluttuanti, Bruno Mondadori, Milan, 2002, p. 180.
1978, Toronto, A Space, Fabio Mauri at A Space, 11–12 October.
1978, Vancouver, Studio Z, International video event, 7 December.
1979, Amsterdam, De Appel, Muro d’Europa: La barca, 25 May – 2 June.
1979, Winnipeg (Canada), Arthur Street Gallery, News from Europe: video screening, 16–30 June.
1979, Rome, Museo delle Arti Popolari, International Video.
1979, Vancouver, Vancouver Art Gallery – Video space, Perform: Performance Art Videotapes, September–October.
1984, Montreal, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Montreal and Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Western Front Video, 27 September – 11 November.
2002, Rome, Università degli Studi Roma 1 “La Sapienza”, Angela Madesani. Le icone fluttuanti, 3 May.
2002, Rome, Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Invideo il giovedì, 12 September.
2003, Tourcoing-Lille, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Fabio Mauri – L’écran mental, 1 March – 27 April, curated by Dominique Païni.
2017, Rome, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Doppio Schermo / Double Screen, 19 September – 9 November, curated by Bruno Di Marino.
2018, Castelbasso (Teramo), Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Fabio Mauri 1968-1978, 22 July – 2 September, curated by Laura Cherubini.
WESTERN FRONT VIDEO Catalogue, edited by Kate Craig (Vancouver: Western Front Society, 1979), n.p. (ill.).
Video ’79: Video - The first decade - Dieci anni di videotape, edited by A. Silij (Rome: KANE editore, 1979), p. 110.
Western Front Video, exhibition catalogue, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal and Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, edited by André Ménard (Montreal, 1984), p. 26 (ill.).
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. 186–187 (ill.).
Angela Madesani, Le icone fluttuanti. Storia del cinema d'artista e della videoarte in Italia (Milan: Bruno Mondadori, 2002), p. 180.
Fabio Mauri. L’écran mental, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing-Lille, edited by Dominique Païni (Lille, 2003), p. 79 (ill.).
Federica Boràgina, Fabio Mauri. Che cosa è, se è, l’ideologia nell’arte (Catanzaro: Rubbettino editore, 2012), p. 73, no. 15, p. 73 (ill.).
Doppio Schermo: Film e video d’artista in Italia dagli anni ’60 a oggi, exhibition catalogue, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, edited by Bruno di Martino (Imola: Manfredi Edizioni, 2017), p. 65 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri 1968-1978, exhibition catalogue, Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Castelbasso (Teramo), edited by Laura Cherubini (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2018), p. 25 (ill.).
