FABIO MAURI. DE OPPRESSIONE
Milano, Triennale
December 3, 2025 – February 15, 2026
Ph. Stefano Tacchinardi. Courtesy Associazione Genesi
Promoted by Associazione Genesi
in collaboration with Triennale Milano and Studio Fabio Mauri – Associazione per l’Arte L’Esperimento del Mondo on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the artist’s birth
Curated by Ilaria Bernardi
Associazione Genesi dedicates an exhibition to the theme of oppression in the work of Fabio Mauri (Rome, 1926 – 2009), a leading figure in the post-Second World War Italian avant-garde. This will mark the beginning of the celebrations for the centennial of the artist’s birth, which will begin in 2026 and include several events, among which major travelling retrospective exhibitions, as well as the publication of a general catalogue of works. The exhibition will be held in Milan, where the artist lived for a very long time, and a city he was very fond of.
Mauri deserves credit for having foreshadowed, from the late 1960s, the dramatic theme of oppression in its potential typological, chronological, and geographical expressions. This is the reason why the exhibition at the Triennale Milano will focus on a group of iconic works that the artist made between the late 1960s and the 2000s. These works are capable of casting light on the extreme relevance of the artist’s output via the central role of the theme of oppression, especially in its expressions linked to culture, identity, and ideology, exploring how in history and in various geographical contexts these three concepts have become reasons for oppression.
The historic works on display will include the installation Amore mio (1970) on the theme of death, never again exhibited in Italy after its presentation at the eponymous exhibition held in Montepulciano the same year it was made, Manipolazione di Cultura (1974) and Europa bombardata (1978), which, from their respective titles, already reveal the type of underlying oppression; I numeri malefici (1978) presented at the Venice Biennale in 1978 and now in the permanent collection of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, in which the artist shows how an error in calculation and judgment can serve as material for the interpretation of humans and history.
The works made by the artist in the following decades and that are also on display include Ricostruzione della memoria a percezione spenta (1988), Cina ASIA Nuova (1996), and Rebibbia (2007) exemplifying the artist’s sensibility in perceiving and interpreting every type of abuse, even of the most individual and personal kind, as a part of history.
The exhibition will also feature guided tours, workshops, and educational encounters co-organized by Genesi together with its own patrons, including Università Cattolica, FAI Ponte tra culture with Associazione Amici del FAI, Gariwo – the Gardens of the Righteous, and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation Italia. These activities, conceived for a public of all ages, offer tools that can be used to read not only Mauri’s poetics, but the universal themes dealt with as well, confirming the association’s goal to combine art, critical reflection, and collective participation.
The first appointment of the public program will be held on Wednesday, December 10, at 6 pm, with keynote speaker Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, President of the Advisory Committee of the Studio Fabio Mauri and curator of the general catalogue, published by Allemandi and Hatje Cantz. The catalogue will be presented for the first time on this occasion.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue published by Silvana Editoriale, with an introductory essay by the curator, a chronology of the artist’s life and works, descriptive entries of the works on display, and images and historical photographs from the artist’s archive.
