MATERIALS: Projection on fan in motion
PROJECTION: Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Westfront , 1930
16 mm film, black and white, sound, 98 min.
DIMENSIONS: Approx. 150 × 60 × 370 cm
Fan: 133 × 55 × 55 cm
Film case: 37.5 × 42.5 × 5.5 cm
Projector with profiler: 92 × 20 × 63 cm
Speaker: 25 × 12 × 15 cm
Easel: 78 × 48 × 110 cm
PROVENANCE: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
COLLECTION: MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Art
CATALOGUE: PR_1975_918
An installation consisting of a 16mm-film projector placed on a tripod that, through a cardboard shaping tube, projects the Georg Wilhelm Pabst film Westfront onto the central area of a fan set to run at maximum speed, installed in front of the projection machine. Rapid movement of the fan blades creates the illusion of a continuous surface – ‘a non-existent screen’, Mauri writes in a note – on which the film’s images intelligibly flow, giving rise to a sculpture of iron and light that blasts viewers with cold air and high-volume sound. At a sensory level, the installation amplifies and emphasises the film’s stark realism, depicting the horror and despair of trench life on the German Western Front in the final months of the First World War: ‘The artwork is intercepted halfway, at an empty spot, while the (icy) draught almost makes it impossible to view: the parable adumbrates the distorted use of an artwork whose weave was intended to achieve an opposite result.’1
1. F. Mauri, ‘Proiezioni su oggetti’, in Domus, no. 562, Milan, 1976, p. 53.
1975, Rome, Teatro in Trastevere, Senza Ideologia: Azione di Fabio Mauri dal ciclo Oscuramento, 9 December.
1976, Milan, Galleria Toselli, Senza, 18 May.
1978, Geneva, Fondazione Patino, Sans nouvelles de l’Europe, 25 May.
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.
1996, Los Angeles, MOCA – The Museum of Contemporary Art, Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film since 1945, 16 March – 28 July, curated by Kerry Brougher.
1996-1997, Columbus, Wexner Center for the Arts, Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film since 1945, 20 September 1996 – 5 January 1997, curated by Kerry Brougher (travelling: 1996, Los Angeles).
1997, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, La stanza degli specchi: Arte e film dal 1945, 2 July – 1 September, curated by Kerry Brougher (travelling: 1996, Los Angeles).
1997-1998, Chicago, MCA’s Contemporary Art Circle, Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film since 1945, 11 October 1997 – 21 January 1998, curated by Kerry Brougher (travelling: 1996, Los Angeles).
2003, Tourcoing-Lille, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Fabio Mauri – L’écran mental, 1 March – 27 April, curated by Dominique Païni.
2012-2013, Catanzaro, Complesso Monumentale del San Giovanni, Lo sguardo espanso, 30 November 2012 – 3 March 2013, curated by Bruno di Martino, Marco Meneguzzo, Andrea La Porta.
2016-2017, Naples, Museo Madre, Retrospettiva a luce solida, 26 November 2016 – 6 March 2017, curated by Laura Cherubini, Andrea Viliani.
2022, Berlin, Palais Populaire, Opera Opera. Allegro ma non troppo: Contemporary Art from the MAXXI Collection, 27 April – 22 August, curated by Eleonora Farina.
2023, Rome, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Fuori tutto, 28 June – 25 February, curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi.
“Senza ideologia di Fabio Mauri”, in Flash Art, no. 60–61, Giancarlo Politi Editore, Milan, December 1975, p. 15.
Fabio Mauri, “Proiezioni su oggetti, Una mostra di Fabio Mauri a Milano”, in Domus, no. 562, Milan, September 1976, p. 53.
Fabio Mauri, Le proiezioni 1970-1978 (Macerata / Falconara: La nuova foglio editrice - piano inclinato / Galleria del Falconiere, 1978), n.p. (ill.).
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), pp. 155–161 (ill.).
Fermata d’autobus, exhibition catalogue, Spazio Flaminio Atac, Rome, edited by Achille Bonito Oliva, Renato Mambor (Rome: Carte Segrete, 1995), p. 92 (ill.).
Massimo Mininni, Arte in scena: La performance in Italia 1965-1980 (Ravenna: Danilo Montanari Editore, 1995), p. 135.
Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film since 1945, exhibition catalogue, MOCA – The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, edited by Kerry Brougher, Russell Ferguson (New York: Monacelli Press, 1996), p. 95.
La stanza degli specchi: Arte e film dal 1945, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, edited by Kerry Brougher, Rosella Siligato (Rome: Nuova Àrgos Edizioni, 1997), p. 29.
Fabio Mauri. Picnic o il buon soldato, exhibition catalogue, Galleria La Tartaruga, Castelluccio di Pienza (Siena), edited by Plinio De Martiis (San Quirico d’Orcia, Siena: Editrice DonChisciotte, 1998), p. 48 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. L’écran mental, exhibition catalogue, Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing-Lille, edited by Dominique Païni (Lille, 2003), pp. 54, 56 (ill.).
Stefano Chiodi, “Attraversando lo specchio dell'ideologia. Intervista con Fabio Mauri”, in Reset, no. 100, Milan, March–April 2007, pp. 84–85 (ill.).
Maria Rosa Sossai, Film d’artista. Percorsi e confronti tra arte e cinema (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2008), p. 112.
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), pp. 138, 144–145 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. Un sognatore della ragione, exhibition catalogue, Castello di Miramare, Trieste, edited by Federica Alberton (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2010), cover (ill.).
Alfabeta 2, Year I, no. 2, Milan, September 2010, p. 19 (ill.).
Laura Cherubini, “Projections”, in Fabio Mauri. Ideology and Memory, edited by Studio Fabio Mauri (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 2012), pp. 88, 90–91 (ill.).
Lo sguardo espanso: Cinema d’artista italiano 1912-2012, exhibition catalogue, Complesso Monumentale del San Giovanni, Catanzaro, edited by Bruno di Martino, Marco Meneguzzo, Andrea La Porta (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2012), p. 125 (ill.).
Elisabetta Catalano, Work with Fabio Mauri, edited by Laura Cherubini (Milan: Maretti Editore, 2013), p. 90 (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. 117.
Opera Opera. Allegro ma non troppo: Contemporary Art from the MAXXI Collection, exhibition catalogue, Palais Populaire, Berlino, edited by Eleonora Farina (Bielefeld / Berlin: Kerber Verlag, 2022), n.p. (ill.).
