MATERIALS: Cut-out on doormat
DIMENSIONS: 201 × 420 × 1.8 cm
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: O_2008_692
In the middle of a large, coconut-fibre doormat, the inscription ‘Lo zerbino insolubile’ is carved in negative, legible in contrast with the floor. After Zerbino ariano (inv. 605), in which the phrase was created by burning the fibre, and L’ospite armeno (inv. 873), where the writing merely punctured one of two overlapping carpets, formal synthesis was achieved with Zerbino insolubile in which ‘the phrase, which makes the mat meaningful, is no longer an overlapping inscription; form and content are inseparable.’1 One might be inclined to say, in fact, ‘insoluble’, drawing on its double meaning of enigmatic and inseparable: almost a point of arrival if, as Laura Cherubini writes, it is true that the ‘Zerbini are basically the final, possible metamorphosis of the screen.’2
1. L. Cherubini, ‘Zerbini’, in F. Mauri, Ideologia e memoria, Bollati Boringhieri, Turin, 2012, p. 157.
2. Ibid.
2008, Turin, Galleria Martano, Fabio Mauri: L’insolubile, 7 November – 23 December.
2009, Venice, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Fabio Mauri: etc., 4 June – 20 September, curated by Martina Cavallarin.
2009, Monfalcone (Gorizia), GC.AC. – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Fabio Mauri, 10 October – 1 November, curated by Andrea Bruciati.
2016, San Giovanni La Punta (Catania), Fondazione La Verde La Malfa, Attraverso parole, 19 June – 23 October, curated by Giuseppina Radice.
2019, Venice, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Mauri | Muntadas, 8 May – 10 September, curated by Laura Cherubini.
2025, Bologna, MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Facile ironia. L’ironia nell’arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo, 6 February – 7 September, curated by Lorenzo Balbi, Caterina Molteni.
Fabio Mauri. Etc., exhibition catalogue, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, edited by Vittorio Urbani (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), pp. 44–45 (ill.).
Laura Cherubini, “Doormats”, in Fabio Mauri. Ideology and Memory, edited by Studio Fabio Mauri (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2012), pp. 157–158.
Mauri / Muntadas, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, edited by Laura Cherubini (Imola: Manfredi Edizioni, 2019), pp. 34, 72–73 (ill.).
Viana Conti, “Mauri & Muntadas”, in Segno, Year XLIV, no. 274, Pescara, September–October 2019, p. 38 (ill.).
Laura Cherubini, Contro corrente: I grandi solitari dell’arte italiana: Alighiero Boetti, Gino De Dominicis, Luciano Fabro, Fabio Mauri, Vettor Pisani, Marisa Merz (Milan: Christian Marinotti edizioni, 2020), p. 126.
Facile ironia. L’ironia nell’arte italiana tra XX e XXI secolo, exhibition catalogue, MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, edited by Lorenzo Balbi, Caterina Molteni (Turin: Umberto Allemandi, 2025), pp. 92–95 (ill.).
