Biography
Fabio Mauri was born in Rome in 1926 and has been engaged from an early age to theater, performance, installation and painting, and even theory and teaching.
Since 1954, Maurihas been part of the Italian avant-garde. His first monochrome screens date back to 1957. In the seventies, Mauri focuses on the ideological component of linguistics, and begins his seriesEbrea (1971). That year he produced the artwork Che cosa è il fascismothat he repeats in the Venice Biennale and in New York city. The artist was invited to the Venice Biennales of 1974 and 1978, and also in 1993, when he participated with the artwork Muro Occidentale o del Pianto. In 2013,year of his most recent participation, he reissued the 1973 ´performance Ideologia e Natura.
In parallel, between 1957-1975, Mauriworked in Bompiani publishing housein Rome and Milan, and by 1979 he was offered the chair of Aesthetics of the Experimental Academy of Arts of L'Aquila, where he taught until 2001.In 1989 he exhibited the performance Che cosa è la filosofia. Heidegger e la questionetedesca. Concerto da Tavolo (Qué es la filosofía. Heidegger y la cuestión alemana. Concierto de mesa) in MultimediaCenterQuarto di Santa Giusta, L'Aquila.
In 1994, he organized his first retrospective: Fabio Mauriartworks and actions.1954-1994, in the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rome. In 1996, he exposed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the WexnerCenter for the Arts, Ohio; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; and the Exhibition Palaceof Rome. A second retrospective, in 1997, was organized at the Kunsthalleof Klagenfurt. And in 1999 he exhibited at PS1 in New York. The following year, his work was at the project Novecento. Arte e Storia in Italy, in the Quirinale in Rome.
In 2003, his final retrospective was held at Le Fresnoy, National Studio of Contemporary Arts, Lille. And in 2009, the last of his artworks produced, "etc", was exhibited at the Gallery Michela Rizzo in Venice. Fabio Mauri died in May of that year, after a long illness.
In 2012, his artwork integrates dOCUMENTA 13, in Kassel, and a posthumous exhibition is organized at the Palazzo Reale of Milan. In 2013, his artwork Warumein Gedankeeinen Raumverpestet (Why do a thought pollutes a room?) from 1972 is reinstalled; this exhibition brings Mauri back to the contemporary scene. And in 2014, the Summit Foundation in New York will host L'Espressionista (The Expressionist) from 1982, performance that comes fromthe Gran SerataFuturista 1909-1930 (Great night Futuristic 1909-1930), 1980.His artworks are part of public and private collections in Canada, USA, Austria, Spain, Holland, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, and England. He exhibited all over Italy and in the cities of Vancouver, Toronto, London, Edinburgh and Sunderland.
Mauri has published numerous essays in magazines and art catalogues. His intense activity is condensed in his latest editorial work I am an Arian, (Volume Ed., Rome, and RayoImprmir, Milan).
His work continues through the Studio Fabio Mauri, WorldExperimental Art Association. The web site http://www.fabiomauri.com updated by this Studio, collectshisfull career in texts and images.