MATERIALS: Television happening
RAI ( Radiotelevisione italiana ) video recording
Format 4:3, Italian, black and white, sound, 00:03:12
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: V_1972_3392
Conceived and realised for Radiotelevisione Italiana, this ‘happening’ was broadcast on 22 March 1972 during the Dizionario. I fatti dietro le parole (Dictionary. The Facts Behind the Words) show, in an episode dedicated to the word ‘Happening’. It was later reissued in a recorded version as an art video. After a theoretical introduction, Mauri unexpectedly simulated interference that suspended the broadcast for a few seconds. Amid white noise, one could distinctly hear a voice crying out. ‘The images of the author appeared in front of a screen bearing the words, “The End”. Then the transmission was interrupted, as if some kind of central malfunction had taken place, for some sixty seconds. A bloodcurdling cry was heard. At last, an image returned to the screen with the words “The Crying Television”. Then again, the author, and an image, “The End”, the camera framing the writing. End of performance.’1
1. F. Mauri in 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. 137.
1972, Rome, Rai 1, Il televisore che piange (action), in Dizionario. I fatti dietro le parole / Happening, 22 March.
1998, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, La coscienza luccicante, 16 September – 31 October, curated by Maria Grazia Tolomeo.
1998, Stockholm, SVT, channels 1&2, Arkipelag TV, 1–30 September, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist.
1999, Tokyo, Contemporary Art Factory, ART in Living Room, 20–22 March, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Emiko Kato.
2003, Tourcoing-Lille, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Fabio Mauri – L’écran mental, 1 March – 27 April, curated by Dominique Païni.
2003, Milan, Galleria Pianissimo Contemporary Art, The video game, 9 September – 9 October, curated by Milovan Farronato.
2004, Monfalcone (Gorizia), Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, On Air: video in onda dall’Italia, 19 March – 4 April, curated by Andrea Bruciati, Antonella Crippa.
2004, Rome, Macro – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Macro Videoteca, 21–25 September, curated by Valentina Valentini.
2004, Merano, Kunst Meran im Haus der Sparkasse, On Air, 5–7 August (travelling: 2004, Monfalcone).
2004-2005, Bari, Fort of Sant’Andrea, On Air, 27 December 2004 – 9 January 2005 (travelling: 2004, Monfalcone).
2005-2006, Milan, Careof – Spazio d’Arte e Centro di Documentazione, On Air: video in onda dall’Italia, 15 December 2005 – 6 January 2006 (travelling: 2004, Monfalcone).
2005, Ovada (Alessandria), Incontemporanea festival, On Air: video in onda dall’Italia, 18–21 August (travelling: 2004, Monfalcone).
2012, Rome, Macro – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rewind Italia: Videoart in Italy 1968-1982, 19–20 April.
2013, Paris, Institut national d'histoire de l'art, Du Studio au Plateau de télévision: appropriations, détournements, réinterpretations par les artistes, 28–29 June.
2014, Zurich, Fetivalzentrum, Rewind Italia. Artists’ Video in Italy in the 70s & 80s, 31 May – 20 April, curated by Patrick Huber.
2015-2016, Bonn, Kunstmuseum, TeleGen. Kunst und Fernsehen, 1 October 2015 – 17 January 2016, curated by Dieter Daniels, Stephan Berg.
2016, Vaduz, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, TeleGen. Kunst und Fernsehen, 19 February – 16 May, curated by Dieter Daniels, Stephan Berg (travelling: 2015, Bonn).
2016-2017, Naples, Museo Madre, Retrospettiva a luce solida, 26 November 2016 – 6 March 2017, curated by Laura Cherubini, Andrea Viliani.
2017, Milan, Fondazione Prada, TV 70 Francesco Vezzoli guarda la Rai, 9 May – 24 September, curated by Francesco Vezzoli, Cristiana Perrella, Mario Mainetti.
2017-2018, Pisa, Museo della Grafica – Palazzo Lanfranchi, Il tempo e le opere, 22 December 2017 – 11 March 2018, curated by Massimo Melotti.
2018, Beijing, CAFA Art Museum, Doppio Schermo / Double Screen, 19–22 May, curated by Bruno Di Marino (travelling: 2017, Rome).
2018, Shanghai, Power Station of Arts, Doppio Schermo / Double Screen, 26–27 May, curated by Bruno Di Marino (travelling: 2017, Rome).
2022, Rome, Galleria d’Arte Moderna and Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Videoarte in Italia: Il video rende felici, 12 April – 4 September, curated by Valentina Valentini.
Western Front Video, exhibition catalogue, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal and Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, edited by André Ménard (Montreal, 1984), p. 26.
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. 137 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri: Male e bellezza – Das Böse und das Schöne, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, Klagenfurt, edited by Arnulf Rohsmann (Klagenfurt, 1997), p. 44 (ill.).
Gli artisti e il teatro: l’eredità degli anni Sessanta, edited by Jolanda Nigro Covre (Rome: Guido Guidotti Editore, 1997), p. 53 (ill.).
La coscienza luccicante: dalla videoarte all’arte interattiva, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, edited by Paola Saga Serra Zanetti, Maria Grazia Tolomeo (Rome: Gangemi editore, 1998), p. 103 (ill.).
Arkipelag, exhibition catalogue, SVT, kanal/channel 1&2, Stockholm, edited by David Nauman (Stockholm, 1998), n.p.
Floriano De Santi, “La nuova creatività telematica svela la sua coscienza, luccicante”, in Teléma, Year IV, no. 15, Fondazione Ugo Bordoni, Rome, Winter 1998, p. 133 (ill.).
Art in Living Room: The alternative media installation, exhibition catalogue, Contemporary Art Factory, Tokyo (Tokyo, 1999), p. 9 (ill.).
Angela Madesani, Le icone fluttuanti. Storia del cinema d'artista e della videoarte in Italia (Milan: Bruno Mondadori, 2002), p. 178.
Fabio Mauri. L’écran mental, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing-Lille, edited by Dominique Païni (Lille, 2003), pp. 76–77 (ill.).
On Air: Video in onda dall’Italia, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, edited by Andrea Bruciati, Antonella Crippa (Monfalcone: Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, 2004), pp. 132–133, 335 (ill.).
Combo, no. 0, Milan, Summer 2007, p. 23.
Fabio Mauri, Scritti in mostra. L’avanguardia come zona 1958-2008, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: il Saggiatore, 2008), p. 189 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), pp. 115–120 (ill.).
Alfabeta 2, Year I, no. 2, Milan, September 2010, p. 41 (ill.).
VIDEOEX Internationales Expertimentalfilm & Video Festival Zürich, exhibition catalogue, Fetivalzentrum, Zurich (Zurich, 2014), p. 63.
TeleGen: Kunst und Fernsehehn / Art and Television, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum, Bonn, edited by Stephan Berg, Dieter Daniels (Bonn: Hirmer Verlag, 2015), pp. 140, 142 (ill.).
Laura Lezzi, Stephen Partridge, Rewind | Italia: Early Video Art in Italy / I primi anni della videoarte in italia (New Barnet, Herts: John Libbey Publishing Ltd, 2016), p. 51 (ill.).
TV 70: Francesco Vezzoli guarda la Rai, exhibition catalogue, Fondazione Prada, Milan (Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2017), pp. 237–243, 668–669 (ill.).
Cristina Casero, Elena Di Raddo, Francesca Gallo, Arte fuori dall’arte: Incontri e scambi fra arti visive e società negli anni Settanta (Milan: Postmedia books, 2017), pp. 253–259 (ill.).
Mauri / Muntadas, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, edited by Laura Cherubini (Imola: Manfredi Edizioni, 2019), p. 29 (ill.).
Silvia Bottinelli, Double-edged comforts: Domestic Life in Modern Italian Art and Visual Culture (Montréal, Kingston, London, Chicago: McGill – Queen’s University Press, 2021), pp. 266–268 (ill.).
Videoarte in Italia: Il video rende felici, exhibition catalogue, Galleria d’Arte Moderna and Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, edited by Cosetta Saba, Valentina Valentini (Rome: Treccani, 2022), p. 37 (ill.).
Francesca Gallo, “Conferenza e azione in Fabio Mauri”, in Francesca Gallo, Parole, voci, corpi tra arte concettuale e performance (Milan / Udine: Mimesis Edizioni, 2022), p. 117.
"Civiltà delle macchine", 2023, pp. 64–65 (ill.).
