Che cosa è il fascismo (1971)

The memorable performance Che cosa è il fascismo [What Fascism is] debuted at the Safa Palatino Film Studios in Rome on 2 April 1971. The students of the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica “Silvio D’Amico” took part in the performance, which concludes the series of lectures “Gesto e comportamento nell’arte oggi” [Gesture and behaviour in today's art] given by Giorgio Pressburger. The inspiration is the revival of Hitler’s visit to Florence in 1938, on occasion of which the Bologna team, of which Fabio Mauri, his friend Pier Paolo Pasolini, Fabio Luca Cavazza and others were part, wins the intellectual youth games. The work consists in the re-enactment of the “Ludi Juvenales”. They are followed by calisthenics, fencing fights, ice-skating performances, parades of flags, national anthems and debates on Fascist mysticism. The action takes place on a red rectangular carpet with a swastika in the middle, set between black stands subdivided by guilds (Artists, Experts in Agriculture, Experts in Construction, Engineers), and the audience is invited to take a sit. Two small sets of stands bear the star of David, symbol of the racial discrimination that took place during Fascism and that was presented to be harmless and natural. The invitations to the performance, of different colours according to the social class they are for, are handed to Jewish men and women, for whom the small sets of stands are destined. Music from the Fascist repertoire precedes and accompanies the ceremony, which is occasionally imaginary, only evoked from the Podium from which the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio [the Italian Youth of the Lictor] is directed.

At the end of the competitions, the Luce movies are projected onto an old screen: these are historical newsreels filled with the obviously fake news of the Fascist propaganda. In Che cosa è il fascismo, the contrast between the apparent normality of the events and the presence of negative signals creates a sense of growing uneasiness and highlights the impudence of the Lie of the Regime, as well as the unjustified optimism of a nation - or better, of two. (Dora Aceto)

Exhibition dates and venues

1971 - Stabilimenti Safa Palatino, Rome, performed by the students of the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica Silvio D’Amico

1974 - XXXVII Venice Biennale, with the students of the Teatro Universitario Cà Foscari

1979 – Performing Garage, New York, with the students of the Drama Departement of New York University

1993 - Inside out, Museo Pecci, Prato; Retrospective of performances, curated by Ida Panicelli and with the students of the Accademia di Belle Arti in L’Aquila

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, performed by the young teachers and the students of the Accademia di Belle Arti in L’Aquila

– Forte Spagnolo, L’Aquila, with the students of the Accademia di Belle Arti of L’Aquila

1996 – Accademia di Belle Arti, L’Aquila, prove aperte con gli allievi dell'Accademia di Belle Arti dell'Aquila per la performance presso la Kunsthalle di Klagenfurt

1997 – Retrospective Das Böse und das Schöne, Kultur House, Klagenfurt, curated by Arnulf Rohsmann and with the students of the Accademia di Belle Arti, L’Aquila, and Susanne Bakargiev for the lines in German