BOLOGNA.- Studio Fabio Mauri and MAMbo—Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna announce the publication by Hatje Cantz and Allemandi of the Fabio Mauri. Catalogue Raisonné. Edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, this catalogue is published on the occasion of the centenary of the artist’s birth in Rome in 1926. This publication (Hatje Cantz—English / Allemandi—Italian) follows the online version (www.fabiomauri.com/catalogo) which appeared in 2025.
One of the leading figures of the post-war Italian avant-garde, Mauri was a multifaceted figure—visual artist, writer, educator, publisher—whose work is distinguished by its prophetic insights into the power of the schermo (screen) in contemporary society and the manipulation of communication technologies in the rise of 20th-century Fascisms.
In one of his last works created in the year of his passing in 2009, Mauri incised into a large coir doormat the following words: "No particular sign of culture lies outside a general historical text, and no general historical text or interpretation of the world lies outside the more general enigma of the universe".
The author Christov-Bakargiev states: "For me, and for the Italian art world, Mauri was not part of any movement; he was an artist who mainly used black and white to create works that were not self-expressive but conceptual and scientific observations of history, light and darkness and the way good and evil can present themselves in the same interchangeable guise. Extremely precise in method and form, Mauri presented reality «as it is» to the viewer and revealed its mysterious cruelty, which he explored from philosophical and theological perspectives".
The result of many years of cataloguing the works and research strands of the artist and intellectual, this catalogue raisonné constitutes the most comprehensive study of the artist’s oeuvre to date. It consists of images and descriptions of over 3,600 works and is accompanied by an introductory essay by Christov-Bakargiev and new essays by the scholars Laura Cherubini, Francesca Alfano Miglietti and Andrea Viliani, as well as an unpublished interview with Mauri by Hans Ulrich Obrist and a testimonial from the artist’s friend and philosopher Giacomo Marramao.
On Saturday, October 10, 2026, from 3:00 to 5:30 pm, MAMbo—Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna will present the catalogue on the occasion of the XXII edition of the Giornata del Contemporaneo, promoted by AMACI, and as part of the sixth edition of the Giornata di studi sulla critica d’arte in ricordo di Giovanni Maria Accame (1941–2011).
In addition to this publication, an important exhibition of the artist’s works will be held at MAMbo from 4 February to 2 May 2027, curated by Christov-Bakargiev with Lorenzo Balbi. A new version of this exhibition will be presented at MUDAM Luxembourg in June 2027.
The catalogue raisonné is produced by MAMbo—Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna of Settore Musei Civici of Comune di Bologna together with Studio Fabio Mauri—Associazione per l’Arte L’Esperimento del Mondo and supported by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council (14th edition, 2025), with the aim of promoting Italian contemporary art internationally.
