Triennale Milano hosts De Oppressione, the exhibition that Associazione Genesi dedicates to Fabio Mauri (1926–2009), one of the most lucid and radical voices of the Italian postwar avant-garde.
The show inaugurates the celebrations for the artist’s centenary, which in 2026 will be marked by major traveling retrospectives and the publication of the complete works catalogue. It is a necessary tribute to an artist who uniquely interrogated the twentieth century, dissecting its mechanisms of power, ideological drift, and the fragility of both individual and collective identity.
The choice of Milan is no coincidence: the city was, for Mauri, a place of deep formative ties. His poetic vision—spanning painting, drawing, writing, performance, and installation—revolves around a constant tension between memory and history, symbol and document, vision and ethical responsibility. As early as the 1950s, Mauri identified the screen—cinematic, televisual, or mental—as the key device of modern society: a neutral surface and, at the same time, a place of manipulation, anticipating the “society of the screen” that today surrounds us through computers and social media.
At the heart of the exhibition lies the theme of oppression, which Mauri addressed early and prophetically starting in the late 1960s, perceiving its collective, cultural, and intimate dimensions. It is a reflection that spans cultures, geographies, and historical periods, revealing how ideology, identity, and culture can become tools of domination.
The exhibition gathers iconic works created between the late 1960s and the 2000s. Among them: Amore mio (1970), an installation on the theme of death shown again in Italy after more than fifty years; Manipolazione di Cultura (1974) and Europa bombardata (1978), whose very titles denote ideological oppression; and I numeri malefici (1978), presented at the Venice Biennale, where Mauri reflects on error as a key element in interpreting history. Among later works, Ricostruzione della memoria a percezione spenta (1988), Cina ASIA Nuova (1996), and Rebibbia (2007) stand out, demonstrating how the artist could transform even personal injustice into universal testimony.
The exhibition is accompanied by a rich public program: guided tours, workshops, and talks organized in collaboration with Università Cattolica, FAI, Gariwo, and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation Italy. The first event, on 10 December, will feature Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev presenting the digital edition of the complete catalogue published by Allemandi and Hatje Cantz.
De Oppressione is not only a tribute to a major artist, but also an invitation to read the present through Mauri’s critical gaze. His works still challenge us today, urging us to recognize how mechanisms of violence, censorship, and propaganda continue to recur. This exhibition does not merely celebrate a master; it reaffirms the civic role of art in understanding history—and attempting to change it.
Triennale di Milano
Date
3 dicembre 2025 – 15 febbraio 2026
