Coda grigia (n. 791)

1960

Painted sculpture

2.7 × 13.5 cm (1 1/16 × 5 5/16 in.)

The 35mm film reel seems more authentic than nature. The perforations, used to transport the film in the camera device, are perfectly regular, thus emphasising this impression of reality. This painted sculpture, however, leaves the viewer with a question: is the reel still unused, or printed by light then ruined by light or has it already been developed?

Born in Rome, Fabio Mauri is one of the foremost names in the Italian artistic avant-garde. If he tries mainly to create a bridge between art and cinema in works that are inspired by the medium tool that is the screen, in Coda Grigia (N.791) he shifts his focus from the How to the What: as a receptacle and a distributor, the reel is the original tool of television programmes, for the better and – more often – for the worse.

The sculpture Coda Grigia (N.791) by Fabio Mauri was first shown by the Pinault Collection at the 2016 “Accrochage” (“Hanging”) exhibition at the Punta della Dogana.
Exhibitions