L'Espressionista (1982)

L’Espressionista [The Expressionist], 1982, is a performance taken from Gran Serata Futurista 1909-1930 (1980). There is a young man wearing skis, dressed up as an old-fashion skier, who wanders among the audience, looks at the world and portrays it. “He takes off the skis, walks up the stairs, puts them back on. Every now and then, he grabs a pencil and a piece of paper and starts drawing what he sees: a female body, a table, a plant. He distributes his drawings to the audience. Woodcuts by Heckel, Muller and other young expressionist artists pop out from his backpack. The fact that he is wearing skis transforms the relationship of the subject with the Theatre or the Museum: it introduces an element which is unavoidably external, the unwelcoming and isolated presence of the artist,” Mauri himself writes. He is the symbol of beauty looking for truth. In his work, despite the fatigue, he completes a journey: that of art. (Dora Aceto)

Exhibition dates and venues

1982 – Three-day-long performance, Teatro Olimpico, Rome

1993 – Inside out, Museo Pecci, Prato, curated by Ida Panicelli

1994 – Retrospettiva 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

– Modelli da “Opere e Azioni 1954-1994”. Un omaggio dell'Abruzzo a Fabio Mauri, Università degli Studi dell'Aquila, Chiesa di S. Caterina, Forte Spagnolo, L’Aquila

2010 - Entre glace et neige, Centro Saint-Bénin, Aosta

– Triennale di Milano

2014 – Fabio Mauri Study Day, CIMA – Centre for Italian Modern Art, New York

2016 – Fabio Mauri Retrospettiva a luce solida, Museo MADRE, Naples, curated by Laura Cherubini and Andrea Viliani

2018 – Fabio Mauri. With Out, Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street, with Olivier Renaud-Clément