Insonnia per due forme contrarie di universo (1978)

Insonnia per due forme contrarie di universo [Insomnia for two opposite forms of universe] is a poster that Mauri hung in via Portuense in Rome in 1978, on occasion of the initiative promoted by Catalano, Benvenuti and Falasca, friends and members of the Roman group “Uffici per l’immaginazione preventiva”. The project consists in the temporary and free posting of the projects of the artists around the city.

The image is split in two parts: on the left, the enlarged image of two curves which represent the physical structure of the universe, both in motion or at still; on the right, the picture of a man’s face cut into two, taken by the Japanese photographer Blue Singer, Vancouver:  it symbolises the restless fracture that takes place when it is impossible to choose between two equally plausible-implausible models.

With this installation, the artist tries to intellectually challenge the passers-by by using a scientific theme and by inserting an enigmatic and problematic image in the public space: an image which is almost entirely possible to decode, in the same way as it is impossible to decode life. (Dora Aceto)

Exhibition dates and venues

1978 – N.d.R. Via Portuense, Rome, curated by Tullio Catalano

1994 – Retrospective Fabio Mauri. Opere e Azioni 1954 - 1994 [Fabio Mauri. Works and Actions 1954 - 1994], National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome, curated by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev, supervised by Augusta Monferini

1997 – Universarte, Complesso Monumentale di S. Giovanni in Monte, Bologna, curated by Vittoria Coen and Valerio Deho 

2000 – Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome, curated by Luigi Ficacci

2008 – L’universo d’uso [Universe of use], Festival della Filosofia, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome

2010 – Fabio Mauri Un sognatore della ragione/Giorgio De Chirico Un maestoso silenzio [Fabio Mauri, a rational dreamer/Giorgio De Chirico, a majestic silence],  Scuderie del Castello di Miramare, Trieste, curated by Roberto Alberton

2012 – Fabio Mauri, THE END, Royal Palace of Milan, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti

2018 – Fabio Mauri 1968-1978, Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, curated by Laura Cherubini

2019 – Mauri | Muntadas, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venezia, curated by Laura Cherubini