MATERIALS: Painted seashell, rubber, sink siphon, toy car, and cashmere scarf on iron plate
DIMENSIONS: 100 × 70 × 18 cm
INSCRIPTIONS: Signed, dated and titled on the verso, upper right: ‘Fabio Mauri 1998 / “Dov’è Dio” ’
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: PT_1998_835
A sheet of black iron backs a collage of various elements: a cruciform tyre that, in the centre of the picture, resembles a viewfinder; a bomb-like sink siphon; a wooden toy car wrapped in a cashmere scarf concealing a ping-pong ball; and a shell painted red1 in the upper-left-hand corner. Enigmatically entitled Dove è Dio, this work was made for the ‘Picnic o Il buon soldato’ exhibition (inv. 3204).
1. Shell painted by Francesco Rocchi, an artist whom Fabio Mauri hosted in his studio for several years after meeting him at the Repubblica dei Ragazzi in Santa Marinella (Rome), where Mauri had previously worked, helping troubled youth.
1998, Castelluccio di Pienza (Siena), Galleria La Tartaruga, Picnic o Il buon soldato, 5 September – 11 October, curated by Benedetta Origo, Plinio De Martiis.
1999, Barcelona, Fundació “La Caixa”, La meva cosina Marcella i la guerra civil, 29 January – 21 March, curated by Martí Peran.
2013, Venice, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Fabio Mauri. Picnic o il buon soldato, 23 September – 14 December.
2014-2015, Rovereto (Trento), Mart – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, La guerra che verrà non è la prima, 4 October – 20 September.
2015-2016, London, Hauser & Wirth, Fabio Mauri. Oscuramento. The wars of Fabio Mauri, 11 December 2015 – 6 February 2016, curated by Olivier Renaud-Clément.
