Quadreria (1999)

Quadreria [Collection of paintings] simulates a retrospective exhibition of a famous artist who lived between the two centuries and is part of the exhibition “La Ville, le Jardin, la Mémoire” curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Laurence Bossé and Hans Ulrich Obrist (Villa Medici, Rome, 1999).

The artist discovers the studio of Roberto Bompiani, his ancestor and one of the most prominent voices of his age: a family collection of paintings, owned by the artist's grandfather, is organised and displayed on the lunette of the vault.

There is also a sofa that used to belong to the artist’s family, on which four generations of artists and writers (Luigi Pirandello, Wilelm De Kooning, Ettore Petrolini, Alberto Moravia, Pier Paolo Pasolini) sat.

Hundreds of names are carved on a large iron sheet, and the walls we can read, in relief, the names of the family members who passed away, whose adventurous, dramatic, funny destiny is summarised in one sentence: “It is reasonable to be dead”.

The exhibition was displayed again in 2003 during the retrospective L’Ecran Mental at the Studio Nacional des Arts Contemporains, Le Fresnoy, Lille.

(Dora Aceto)

Exhibition dates and venues

1999 – La Ville, le Jardin, la Mèmoire, Accademia di Francia, Villa Medici, Rome, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Hans Hulrich Obrist

2003 – Retrospettiva L’Ecran Mental, Studio Nacional des Arts Contemporains, Le Fresnoy Lille, a cura di Dominique Paїni

2015 – Fabio Mauri I WAS NOT NEW, Galleria Hauser&Wirth, New York, a cura di Olivier Renaud-Clément