COMPONENTS: Photograph on paper, frame with or without wooden poles, bicycle rack, bicycle
DIMENSIONS: Variable
Frame: 158 × 270 × 5 cm
(with poles: 337 × 270 × 5 cm)
Rack: 170 × 80 × 33 cm
Bicycle: 170 × 80 × 50 cm
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: I_1994_978
In 1994, Fabio Mauri again presented Insonnia per due forme contrarie di universo (inv. 673) in the form of an installation. Originally conceived in 1978 as part of the ‘N.d.R.’ project promoted by the Ufficio per l’immaginazione preventiva collective, the work consisted of temporary artist-drawn billboards along Rome’s Via Portuense. Mauri reconstructed the Porta Portese advertising installation,1 complete with an ‘N.d.R.’ plaque and mopeds parked under the billboard, citing the original urban context for the ‘Opere e Azioni 1954–1994’ retrospective in the courtyard of the Galleria Nazionale di Roma. He later replaced the motorcycles with a bicycle on a rack, which, at the artist’s request, became an actual parking space for employees at the Calcografia Nazionale Institute in Rome.
1. Over the years, the work was displayed in two different versions: one with a frame enclosing the graphic, attached to two wooden poles on the ground; the other, with just the frame leaning up against the wall, and no extra supports.
1978, Rome, Mercati di Porta Portese, N.d.R.: Insonnia per due forme contrarie di universo, opening 1 December.
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.
1997, Bologna, Complesso Monumentale di San Giovanni in Monte, Universarte, 31 May – 20 July, curated by Vittoria Coen, Valerio Dehò.
2001, Rome, Palazzo della Calcografia, Roma: Visita guidata, 28 February – 1 April, curated by Gianluca Lipoli, Emanuela Nobile Mino.
2008, Rome, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Fabio Mauri. L’universo d’uso, 17 April – 15 May, curated by Anna Cestelli Guidi, Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
2010-2011, Trieste, Castello di Miramare, Fabio Mauri: Un sognatore della ragione, 3 December 2010 – 27 February 2011, curated by Roberto Alberton.
2012, Milan, Palazzo Reale, Fabio Mauri – The End, 19 June – 23 September, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.
2018, Castelbasso (Teramo), Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Fabio Mauri 1968-1978, 22 July – 2 September, curated by Laura Cherubini.
2019, Venice, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Mauri | Muntadas, 8 May – 10 September, curated by Laura Cherubini.
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. 188–189 (ill.).
Universarte, exhibition catalogue, Complesso Monumentale di San Giovanni in Monte, Bologna, edited by Vittoria Coen, Valerio Dehò (Bologna: Editrice Compositori, 1997), pp. 57, 102 (ill.).
Visita guidata, edited by Gianluca Lipoli (Rome: Calcografia Nazionale, 2000), n.p. (ill.).
Ludovico Pratesi, “Officina dell'arte”, in la Repubblica, Rome, 28 February 2001, pp. X-XI (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. L’universo d’uso, exhibition catalogue, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: Skira, 2008), pp. 76–77 (ill.).
Maria Grazia Tolomeo, “Fabio Mauri. Sessantotto. Tra pensiero e azione”, in Roma Capitale, Year IV, no. 34, Rome, May 2008, p. 37 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Io sono un ariano (Milan: Lampi di stampa, 2009), pp. 199–204 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. Un sognatore della ragione, exhibition catalogue, Castello di Miramare, Trieste, edited by Federica Alberton (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2010), pp. 34–35 (ill.).
Arte e memoria dell’arte, edited by Maria Ida Catalano, Patrizia Mania (Pistoia: Gli Ori, 2011), pp. 68–71 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. The End, exhibition catalogue, Palazzo Reale, Milan, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: Skira, 2012), pp. 94–96 (ill.).
Lea Mattarella, “La storia come tragedia”, in Arte, no. 467, Milan, July 2012, p. 82 (ill.).
Federica Boràgina, Fabio Mauri. Che cosa è, se è, l’ideologia nell’arte (Catanzaro: Rubbettino editore, 2012), pp. 73–75, no. 16, p. 74 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri 1968-1978, exhibition catalogue, Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Castelbasso (Teramo), edited by Laura Cherubini (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2018), pp. 68–69 (ill.).
Mu6: Fabio Mauri a Castelbasso, Year XIII, no. 36, L'Aquila, August 2018, pp. 2–3 (ill.).
Mauri / Muntadas, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, edited by Laura Cherubini (Imola: Manfredi Edizioni, 2019), pp. 29, 72–73 (ill.).
Viana Conti, “Mauri & Muntadas”, in Segno, Year XLIV, no. 274, Pescara, September–October 2019, p. 39 (ill.).
Mauri, edited by Flaminio Gualdoni (Milan: Corriere della Sera, 2022), pp. 56–57 (ill.).
