INV. No 3370
Art nègre
1994
PROTRUDING WALL WORKS
MATERIALS: Acrylic, wood and various artefacts on canvas
DIMENSIONS: 140.5 × 201.5 × 33 cm
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: PT_1994_3370
NOTE:

Multimedia collage on canvas composed of typical knick-knacks, counterfeit goods and souvenirs sold illegally by African immigrants on Italian streets in the 1990s. The items were arranged on sheets, and folded away into sacks if necessary to escape law enforcement raids. Mauri reprised the objects and layout of these ‘street displays’ to make two large-format pictures to hang on the wall, transforming these clandestine sheets into Art Nègre (inv. 455, 3369). Among the counterfeit goods, a green cardboard suitcase and a black-and-white photograph reference other works by the artist such as Il Muro Occidentale o del Pianto (inv. 441), the ‘Aryan cases’ (inv. 599) and photos in Manipolazione di Cultura (inv. 3553) and Linguaggio è guerra (inv. 307).


Art nègre, 1994