MATERIALS: Transfer letters on paper, soaps and wooden frame
DIMENSIONS: 32 × 70 × 7 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed, dated and titled on the verso, upper left: ‘Fabio Mauri 1971’, middle: ‘“Ebrea. Saponi” 1971’
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: PT_1971_322
A composition of eight bars of soap in different sizes and colours, arranged in a painted wooden box frame in two rows of four columns. A label in the centre of each bar of soap has the name or initials of a Nazi death camp printed on it, darkly implying that they may have been made from the bodies of prisoners held there: Stutthof ref. 0R 2; Cheln. 08; Belzec; Majda ref. 09; Osw. ref. 051; Belzec ref. 0550; Chel. ref. 07; Raven. ch ref. 033. This work was part of the ‘Ebrea’ exhibition-installation (inv. 3476).
1971, Venice, Galleria Barozzi, Ebrea, opening 1 October, curated by Furio Colombo, Renato Barilli.
1971, Brescia, Galleria Acme Studio, Ebrea, opening 30 October (travelling: 1971, Venice).
1971, Parma, Galleria La Steccata, Ebrea, opening 18 November (travelling: 1971, Venice).
1971, Rome, Galleria La Salita, Ebrea, opening 9 December (travelling: 1971, Venice).
1974, Milan, Galleria Cenobio Visualità, “D.P.V.”: Ebrea, 13 February.
1978, Bologna, Galleria d’Arte Moderna and church of Santa Lucia, Metafisica del quotidiano, 1 June – 31 August, curated by Franco Solmi, Marilena Pasquali.
1989, Rome, Galleria Lidia Carrieri, Metessi, 7 November – 2 December, curated by Gabriele Perretta.
1991, Rome, Palazzo dei Congressi, 60-90: Trent’anni di avanguardie romane, 14–18 March, curated by Laura Cherubini, Arnaldo Romani Brizzi.
1992, Milan, Studio Casoli, Fabio Mauri. 3 performances, 8 April, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev.
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.
1997, Klagenfurt, Kunsthalle, Fabio Mauri. Male e bellezza / Das Böse und das Schöne, 24 April – 30 June, curated by Arnulf Rohsmann.
1998-1999, Rome, Spazio per l’arte contemporanea Tor Bella Monaca, 20 mostre a La Salita dal 1960 al 1978, 2 December 1998 – 10 January 1999.
2001, Warsaw, Ujazdowski Castle – Centre for Contemporary Art, Belvedere Italiano. Linee di tendenza dell’arte italiana dal 1945 al 2001, 18 June – 22 July, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.
2012, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Fabio Mauri – The End, 19 June – 23 September, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
2018, New York, Hauser & Wirth, With Out, 25 January – 7 April, curated by Olivier Renaud-Clément.
Fabio Mauri, Der Politische Ventilator (Milan: Achille Mauri – Krachmalnicoff, 1973), p. 45 (ill.).
Metessi, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Lidia Carrieri, Rome, edited by Gabriele Perretta (Rome, 1989), p. 10 (ill.).
60-90: Trenta anni di avanguardie romane, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo dei Congressi, Rome, edited by Laura Cherubini, Arnaldo Romani Brizzi (Rome: Edizioni Carte Segrete, 1991), p. 93 (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), pp. 48, 50.
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), p. 127 (ill.).
Arte Italiana: Materiali anomali, exhibition catalogue, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, edited by Danilo Eccher, Dede Auregli (Turin: Hopefulmonster editore, 1997), no. 39, p. 76 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri: Male e bellezza – Das Böse und das Schöne, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, Klagenfurt, edited by Arnulf Rohsmann (Klagenfurt, 1997), pp. 11, 106 (ill.).
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, “Fabio Mauri”, in Cream 3. Contemporary Art in Culture (London: Phaidon, 2003), p. 433 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Scritti in mostra. L’avanguardia come zona 1958-2008, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: il Saggiatore, 2008), p. 232 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), pp. 108–109 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. The End, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Reale, Milan, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: Skira, 2012), p. 51 (ill.).
Laura Cherubini, “Jewess”, in Fabio Mauri. Ideology and Memory, edited by Studio Fabio Mauri (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2012), pp. 52–53 (ill.).
Vice versa: 55. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte di Venezia, exhibition catalogue, La Biennale, Venice, edited by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi (Milan: Mousse Publishing, 2013), p. 134 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, exhibition catalogue, Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, edited by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio (Buenos Aires, 2014), p. 40 (ill.).
Valérie Da Costa, Fabio Mauri: le passé en actes (Dijon: Les presses du réel, 2018), no. 65, p. 119 (ill.).
Mauri, edited by Flaminio Gualdoni (Milan: Corriere della Sera, 2022), pp. 36–37 (ill.).
