Picnic o Il buon soldato (1998)

The exhibition Picnic o Il buon soldato [Picnic or The good soldier] is structured on two levels: movement and action / stasis and contemplation. Fabio Mauri's performance and works on the theme of war and peace as involuntary wait are created by using real and common-use artefacts dating back to the war period. This wait is vital, without sadness. It is not possible, however, to avoid the cruel and inconsiderate violence of the war. This exhibition is a metaphor for life. Nature, withered by real death prevailing on everything, turns into still life. In this performance, the sweetness of life and the bitterness of death interweave and sediment on things. As in a single, long frame taken from a war film, a girl standing in front of a young soldier - a “marmittone” - hands out some hot broth to the bystanders, while the film La ballata del vecchio soldato [Ballad of a Soldier] by Grigorji Chukhraj is projected on the back of a young woman. (Dora Aceto)

Exhibition dates and venues

1998 – Galleria La Tartaruga, Castellucio di Pienza, curated by Plinio De Martis

1999 – Mia cugina Marcella e la guerra civile [My cousin Marcella and the civil war], Sala Montcada, Fundaciòn La Caixa, Barcelona, curated by Martì Peran

2013 – Fabio Mauri, Picnic o Il buon soldato [Picnic or The Good Soldier], Galleria Michela Rizzo, Giudecca, Venice

2014 – La guerra che verrà non è la prima 1914-2014 [The coming war won’t be the first one 1914-2014], Mart Museum of modern and contemporary art, Trento and Rovereto 

2015 – OSCURAMENTO - The wars of Fabio Mauri - Hauser&Wirth, Londra, organizzata con Olivier Renaud-Clément

2016 – Fabio Mauri Retrospettiva a luce solida, Museo MADRE, Napoli, a cura di Laura Cherubini e Andrea Viliani