welcome to cupponeland

“would you tell me, please, which way i ought to go from here?” / “that depends a good deal on where you want to get to” said the cat. / “i don’t much care where” said alice. / “then it doesn’t matter which way you go” said the cat.

“if there’s no meaning in it” said the king “that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn’t try to find any”. / “and yet i don’t know” he went on (…) “i seem to see some meaning in them, after all”. / (l. carroll, “alice’s adventures in wonderland”)

“if i had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. and contrary-wise, what is, wouldn’t be. and what it wouldn’t be, it would”. / (w. disney, “alice in wonderland”)

welcome, leave all hope in the wonderland of egophilia / no trespassing or the rock world collapses / cave canem (beware of the dog), your best friend / this is not a country for men / welcome (cursed) to the land that (not) awaits you.

welcome to cupponeland / 2021 / archeological area of the imperial harbour of claudius and trajan, fiumicino (rome) /site specific installation.
welcome to cupponeland / 2021 / archeological area of the imperial harbour of claudius and trajan, fiumicino (rome) /site specific installation.

for sale

“For Sale” is for sale!!!

https://www.electa.it/en/product/mauro-cuppone-for-sale/

What unites more than ten-year artistic output in the name of self-denial with fifteen international and eccentric witnesses, guest star of an off-key concert? Artists and designers (Jennifer Rubell, Gavin Turk, Alessandro Guerriero, Massimo Mazzone), fashion critics (Antonio Mancinelli), writers, sociologists, anthropologists, architects (Fulvio Abbate, Alberto Abruzzese, Giorgio de Finis, Francesco Proto), advertisers (Alfredo Accatino), art critics (Gianluca Marziani, Adonay Bermudez, Josè Falconi) and even a starred chef (Mario Batali) and an illusionist magician (Raul Cremona)? The “game” of a non-book, a hybrid between a monograph and a choral work; a sort of “artist’s book” (complete with limited series) that, simulating a narrative, distributes the recurrent and interchangeable themes of Mauro Cuppone’s creative work in three stages: death (metaphor of our contemporaneity), magic (spectacularity and wonder in story-telling) and self-referentiality (the “deadly disease” of today, in particular of self-styled art); A “circular narrative” that can begin and end at any point.

mauro cuppone, for sale / electa, 2023 / 17×24 cm / 288 pages / english-italian / cover

four more signs

“Mauro Cuppone’s ‘signs’ are the only certainties in necessary uselessness.” (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, “Light tautologies: when the English clock strikes 7 English strokes”) / If art exists, it is the (vain) effort to make known that there is nothing to know; the most titanic of undertakings: the necessary exercise of tautology, the Promethean gift of uselessness, the only theft from the Divine that the avant-gardes of the human species are truly capable of, that is, the artists chained to their resort rocks. Whether the Truth is the Land of the Fathers or the Promised Land, roots or future, it is not a surface on which to rest one’s feet – either because of the incommensurability of the surface or the immobility of the feet – nothing that Zeus should worry about; a dark forest of luminous signs that refer to themselves, a monopoly in which every throw of the dice always refers us, democratically, to the Way / Between animal entrails and slot machines, between Kabbalah and Big Bangs, divin-action tragically returns always and only to coincidence (oh!) with oneself: ultimately with immobility / And if Parmenides’ Being and Freud’s Witz were the same thing? The certainty of being ridiculous.

true art sees beyond / 2023 / paint on aluminium plate / 90 x 120 x 2 cm

true art makes no mistakes / 2023 / paint on aluminium plate / 90 x 120 x 2 cm

true art reads the present / 2023 / paint on aluminium plate / 90 x 120 x 2 cm

true art is always right / 2023 / paint on aluminium plate / 90 x 120 x 2 cm

in dust we trust!

“there is shadow under this red rock / (come in under the shadow of this red rock) / and i will show you something different from either / your shadow at morning striding behind you / or your shadow at evening rising to meet you / i will show you fear in a handful of dust” (t.s. eliot, “the waste land”)

in dust we trust! / 2023 / coconut doormat, 80×50 cm

so far so good

“You worry about yourself, are you ready for him? What if he comes now, huh? / Reminds me of that fellow back home that fell off a ten story building. / What about him? / Well, as he was falling people on each floor kept hearing him say, So far, so good. Tch… So far, so good!” / “Fella I once knew in El Paso, one day he took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him the same question, why? / And him? / He said it seemed to be a good idea at the time” (“The magnificent seven” by John Sturges, 1960).

so far so good / 2022 / hood of a crashed jeep, vinyl lettering, 157x122x30 cm

warning! do not step on this artwork

commence advancin’ / commence advancin’ / just start a prancin’ / right and left a-glancin’ / a moochee dancing / slide and glide entrancin’ / do the tango jiggle / with a texas tommy wiggle / take your partner / and hold her / lightly enfold her / a little bolder / just work your shoulder / snap your fingers one and all / in the hall, at the ball / that’s all-some ball! (stan laurel and oliver hardy in “way out west”, 1937)

warning! do not step on this artwork / 2021 / coconut doormat / 90 x 50 cm

art does not lie

“ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from intercontinental radio news. at 7:40 am central time, professor farrell of the mount jennings observatory, chicago, illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet mars. the spectroscope indicates the gas to be hydrogen and moving towards the earth with enormous velocity (…) it is reported that at 8:50 p.m. a huge, flaming object, believed to be a meteorite, fell on a farm in the neighborhood of grovers mills, new jersey (…) the ground is covered with splinters of a tree it must have struck on its way down. what I can see of the … object itself doesn’t look very much like a meteor, at least not the meteors I’ve seen. It looks more like a huge cylinder (…) just a minute! something’s happening! (…) this is terrific! this end of the thing is beginning to flake off! the top is beginning to rotate like a screw! (…) this is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever witnessed…  (…) someone’s crawling out of the hollow top… someone or… something. (…) it might be a face… it might be… [shout of awe from the crowd] (…) i have a grave announcement to make. Incredible as it may seem, both the observations of science and the evidence of our eyes lead to the inescapable assumption that those strange beings who landed in the jersey farmlands tonight are the vanguard af an invading army from the planet mars. the battle that took place tonight at grovers mill has ended in one of the most startling defeats ever suffered by an army in modern times” (“the war of the worlds”, orson welles).

art does not lie #1 / 2020 /  paint on aluminium plate / 90 x 120 x 2 cm

art does not lie #2 / 2020 /  paint on aluminium plate / 90 x 120 x 2 cm

art does not lie #3 / 2020 / paint on aluminium plate / 90 x 120 x 2 cm

art does not lie #2 / 2020 / paint on aluminium plate / permanent collection at maam / museo dell’altro e dell’altrove / rome / 90 x 120 x 2 cm

art does not lie (site specific installation)

“tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, / creeps in this petty pace from day to day / to the last syllable of recorded time, / and all our yesterdays have lighted fools / the way to dusty death” / “we defy augury. there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. if it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. the readiness is all. since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ‘t to leave betimes? let be” (william shakespeare) / tomorrow is forever. “and so on. (pause) be again, be again. (pause) all that old misery. (pause) once wasn’t enough for you. (pause)” (samuel beckett) / “the truth is out there (…) to find the truth, you must believe. to understand the truth, you have to believe” (the x files).

art does not lie / 2019 / warning billboards in the small town of casacalenda (campobasso) on the Apennines / site specific installation / maack, open air museum of contemporary art

heaven can wait (artreview 2019 power 20. most influential people in the contemporary artworld)

“yeah, i know what gold does to men’s souls…that’s gold, that’s what it makes of us. never knew a prospector yet that died rich. make one fortune, you’re sure to blow it in trying to find another” (“the treasure of the sierra madre” by john huston).

walk with us on the walk of fame, contribute with your soles (to step or not to step!) to immortalize the names of its contemporary doormats/ sprinkle them with that street dust (or stardust) that will make them eternal (until the end of the show).

heaven can wait (artreview 2019 power 20. most influential people in the contemporary artworld) / 2019 / macro – museum of contemporary art rome / site specific installation, 80 x 2350 cm

 

 

 

monopoly

“midway journey of our life, / i found myself within a forest dark, / for the straight-forward pathway had been lost” / please make yourselves comfortable! everyone has a “chance” / don’t “all hope abandon, ye who enter in!”… draw a card! / you could win! it’s not so bad isn’t it? / “so my mind sinks in this immensity: and foundering is sweet in such a sea”.

monopoly / 6 flags / 2019 / site specific installation / former headquarters of banca intesa, umbria savings banks (building’s facade) / via baglioni, perugia / italy

monopoly / 6 flags / 2019 / site specific installation / former headquarters of banca intesa, umbria savings banks / via baglioni, perugia / italy

the great cuppone and the divine jack’s big show presents “the artist is absent”

The “Artist” – his third millennium avatar – / is still pursuing an exponential mode of “being there” / because of that umbilical cord with the rite, / with the shamanic paradox of an “absent” presence, / made of the unstable awareness / that any epiphany of that presence / rises from its own “cruel” self-denial. / (pseudo Artaud)

Step right up Ladies and Gentlemen! Come on in you who accept the seal of “artist just for one day”! Because it doesn’t surprise you. As a matter of fact you smile at the paradox of the artist’s presence in the thousand forms of his absence (where could The Divine Jack be if not Elsewhere?); this archetypal paradox between irony and tragedy, with the brazen features of the ostension; of curators who carelessly put themselves on display; of plants rooted in the idea of not talking and prêts à porter coffins that give rest to those who do not feel ready. In short this is a Circus of oxymorons – theatrical and exhibitionistic, let’s face it! – that make us feel alive precisely because of their dis-continuity. If this paradox (of Art) still remains grotesque, how could we define any effort to legitimize it? Scatological? As for our Future it is be better to ask to a dog than to entrust it to jackals. Faute de mieux…

Here is The Great Cuppone & The Divine Jack Big Show, the Circus of the Oxymore, as in more naif times Barnum & Bailey Circus came to tickle the unsatisfied prudery of the Wunderkammer heirs. For four weeks there will be voyeuristic-balagancik-artistic activities in the name of the o-o-o-o of Petit Ernst. The interiors become the exterior , the project room , the square divided by the redundant Circus sign: on this side the attractions and beyond the numbers (everyday different and repeated in rotation). Step right up Ladies and Gentlemen!

we can be artists just for one day

stop! at the entrance, if you want to go in, the employee (and who would have said it?) will brand you like an ox, he will stamp you with a red “A” (“A” for “artist”? for “anarchist”?…) and will nominate you ”artist for a day” / to have it though you will need to stain yourself: but is it the employee that will legitimizes you as an artist or is it you who legitimizes him as an employee authorized to stamp you? / and, if you think about it, only an artist can really understand another artist, but also the person in line before you and the one after you… / they’re all artists? or maybe only him? or no one? / while you are thinking about it, that “A” has already faded a bit / when you will exit it will already be disappearing. just like the work of art? just like the author? / it will disappear, and along with it your art and the art of the one who certified you / of course, that’s all it is, and that’s a fact. “…oh-oh-oh-ohh, oh-oh-oh-ohh, just for one day!” / invention is a permission, diversity and homologation are certified, the (art)work is a stamp / bureaucratic hypertrophy!

we can be artists just for one day / 2016-2018 / wood, stamp, buffer, artist / site specific live installation / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma 

coming soon

when the game is over (or not started) the curtain encourages the absence of the potential,audience with a soundtrack of phantasmatic physio-pop noises out of the scene (ob-scene). who is on stage? (for professional écouteurs).

the great cuppone and the divine jack’s big show: coming soon / 2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma / 800 x 450 cm

xxx art curators

as in amsterdam’s red district, inside a red light showcase, everyday a curator finally invests on her/his own image and exposes her/himself with courage.

xxx art curators / 20 art curators, 8 red neon tubes, 2 red velvet curtain, stool / site specific live installation / 2016-2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma / 108 x 220 cm

i cento pittori di via margutta

the great cuppone and the divine jack are very proud to invite “the via margutta’s one hundred painters” to their big show, guest star: romanonfarlastupida.

the great cuppone and the divine jack’s big show: i cento pittori di via margutta / 2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma / 800 x 450 cm

photos by giorgio sacher

the funhouse mirrors

a world upside down?! / a nursery rhyme for children / a stupid joke as a looking glass / oh noo… noo… it was not me!… / looking glasses are not made to be read / “this is not a donkey”! but if you have read this you are already dumb!

les trahison des paroles / mirror, wood / 2018 / 679 x 99 x 4,5 cm

working title / mirror, wood / 2014-2018 / 598 x 94 x 4,5 cm

death to wear (in the future everyone will be a dead artist for fifteen minutes)

Inspired by Andy Warhol (“in the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes”), anyone could try/wear a personalized coffin with the ad aeternum writing “a dead artist is worth twice” (the revitalizing assistance of a hostess is included).

the great cuppone and the divine jack’s big show: death to wear (in the future everyone will be a dead artist for 15 minutes) / 2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma 

 

art makes you beautiful (in the future everyone will be beautiful for fifteen minutes)

from the show “it only takes five minutes”: in one simple session everyone can become more beautiful forever, with a simple application of a facial mask that will remove all existential aesthetic imperfection (or anesthetic existentialism).

the great cuppone and the divine jack’s big show: art makes you beautiful (in the future everyone will be beautiful for fifteen minutes) / 2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma

 

strange people: the astonishing speaking plant

attention please!! if you see on the vase signs like “i am not talking with you today!” or “go away! i’m thinking!!”, do not take it personally – for fitoverbose plant-lovers.

the great cuppone and the divine jack’s big show / strange people: the astonishing speaking plant / 2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma

strange people: the astonishing speaking plant / 2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma / 110 x 38 x 38 cm

 

strange people: the amazing man without tattoos

how do we decipher, among the hieroglyphic skin of a full-body tattooed tribe, the “natur” of a glabrous skin malgré soi?

strange people: the amazing man without tattoos / site specific live installation / 2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma 

 

strange people: cubist artists

nine artists perform as go-go dancers on a cube / buskers-style (please put a coin on the saucer)!

strange people: cubist bodybuilders

the bodybuilding of physiology and the physiology of culture in comparison (the brain is a muscle)?

strange people: cubist bodybuilders / site specific live installation / 2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma

strange people: various human races

mrs bianchi (white), mr neri (black) and mrs rossi (red) prove their anagraphical and chromatic diversity through their IDs on the cube (no racist and sovereign nonsense)

strange people: various human races / site specific live installation / 2018 / macro asilo / museo di arte contemporanea roma

 

the epiphany tour

it’s in all the papers today! hurry, hurry! / and tomorrow it’s in the city (… only tomorrow!) the divine jack and the great cuppone, far from prying eyes, will vanish into thin air! / the place is secret / the epiphany is invisible / “afterall, tomorrow is gone with the wind!” / epiphany of absence.

the epiphany tour / posters / 2018 / site specific installation / rome / italy

the epiphany tour / posters / 2018 / site specific installation / perugia / italy

 

the great cuppone the wizard of montefiascone (featuring the powerful genoveffa)

the wizard of montefiascone (the man who knows) will show you the way to a radiant future of knowledge, success, love and wealth in the art world and beyond.

is it possible to imagine that our fate depends on the formation of a flock of birds? or that we can foresee our destiny in a calf’s interiors? what real life expectancy assigns us a radiograph? is it possible to divine the future from the arrangement of some sticks thrown on a table? why should we choose a way or another from how a coin fall? with what safety can a liquid crystal display in the station tell us where we will be in a few hours? why statistics don’t make us stop smoking? for centuries art has been the only true language of the unpredictable. which is not the bourgeois mirror of society, that portrays it naturally (of course), but the enigma to be questioned, the only one capable of vertical, ambiguous, powerful answers as in-useful, otherwise impossible for the word. and the only true, miserable, secular oracle is the artist. come, consult him, do not be ashamed to ask the artist and his work for hints about love, work, health, about the most important and mysterious things in life; he will tell you nothing more than what you already know without knowing it. that is not small thing.

the great cuppone, il mago di montefiascone (the man who knows) / 2017 / lambda print / 27 x 44 cm 

the great cuppone, il mago di montefiascone (the man who knows) / decalogue of instructions

decalogue of instructions for interpreting the oracle / 1. you have the opportunity to ask the artist about everything you want. / 2. you only have 10 minutes to share with the artist: it’s a great gift. make the most of it! / 3. ask only precise questions. / 4. the artist will only answer directly: with a”yes”, with a “no” or with a”i don’t know”. / 5. if the artist moves to your left it will be a “yes”, to your right a “no” if she will not move right or left it will mean “i don’t know”. / 6. you could interpret her other movements and expressions freely, but do not insist on having further explanations. / 7. do not tire her, do not overdo by asking too many questions! i suggest you ask, at most, one per minute. / 8. write down your questions and answers on the back of the paper, fold it and place it in the magic box. / 9. take the work of divinatory art chosen exclusively for you by the artist. / 10. decide whether to break it to “know” your future or to preserve it to “enjoy” the artwork.

the great cuppone, il mago di montefiascone (the man who knows) / 2017 / table, chair, tablecloth, wire mesh, straw, chicken feed, 1 magic crystal sphere, 1 magic box, 60 decalogues of instructions, 60 fortune cookies, 60 business cards / site specific live installation at montefiascone’s former prison / italy

the powerful artist-oracle genoveffa

after the two days in which, with great generosity, she had donated her great wisdom to all, i asked the artist-oracle genoveffa her impressions and if she had found this experience useful. her answer was lapidary: “only uselessness is needed!” on the 21st of august, a few days later, genoveffa left us. in the following days she appeared in my dreams. with the humility that has always distinguished her, she wanted to thank me and those who had consulted her. at my question if she was angry with the people who did not understand, she replied: “not everyone is ready … but everything happens for a purpose.” her spirit will guide us. i will always be grateful to her for having chosen me to share her knowledge with you.

ambient art

ambient art is background art: you can watch it while you are chatting / it is ornamental: it fits with your furniture  and your surrounding thanks to a wide variety of themes, colours and styles/ it is a “double face” art: the concept depends on circumstances and mood / three sizes available: small (70 x 50 cm), medium (140 x 100 cm) and large (200 x 140 cm).

ambient art – art for living room #1 / 2017 / collage with wallpaper / 70 x 50 cm 

ambient art – art for living room #2 / 2017 / collage with wallpaper / 70 x 50 cm 

 

obelisk

elsa! elsa! where are you? / baroness von freytag-loringhoven please help us! “drive your cart and your plough over the bones of the dead” / …and let’s just put a lid on it!

obelisk / 2016 / readymade, child coffin / 33x68x28 cm 

world ready-made day / macro, museo d’arte contemporanea / rome / 2019 

xxx art curators

“hello, baby, it’s me, your fantasy / what’s your name? / who cares? just care about my body / hot, i look very hot / i’ll make you mine / i need a baby / it’s loving that you need / satisfaction guaranteed / it won’t cost that much / it’s a very small amount / on your credit card account / come on let your fingers do the walking” (“sex over the phone”, village people) / “mmm hmmm gitchi gitchi ya ya da da / gitchi gitchi ya ya / voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? / voulez-vous coucher avec moi? / living his brave life of lies / voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?” (“lady marmalade”, labelle) / “relax don’t do it / when you want to go to it / relax don’t do it / when you want to come / relax don’t do it / when you want to suck to it / relax don’t do it / when you want to come / come-oh oh oh / but shoot it in the right direction / make making it your intention-ooh yeah / live those dreams / scheme those schemes / got to hit me / hit me / hit me with those laser beams” (“relax”, frankie goes to hollywood).

xxx art curators / september 11th 2016 /13 art curators, 12 red neon tubes, 2 red velvet curtain, stool / site specific live installation at “mas magazzini allo statuto” / rome / italy

tengo ‘na minchia tanta, tengo ‘na minchia accussì

cell-bars / art-boredom / imprisonment-obsession / the same sentence written on the wall thousands of times like a mantra / lying on the cot-monolith of “2001 a space odyssey” i see the unreachable sky / madness is a memory and sex as well / is art more boring or imprisonment? / fortunately there’s suzy creamcheese!

from francesco (petrarca) (“de vita solitaria”, 1346) to frank (zappa) (“tengo ‘na minchia tanta”, 1969) the problem of loneliness is ultimately the quantitative and qualitative determination of the sex organ’s relational potential, as itself evidenced by the poietic process, so that once having proved insufficient the demonstrative adjective “tanta”/”much”, (proposed, with a slightly pronoun-like meaning), the desperate artist resorts repeatedly to the deixis “accussì”/”like so”.

tengo-na-minchia-tanta_mauro-cuppone_contemporary-art_jail_frank-zappa_mental-hospital_limitation-of-freedom_pencil_wall_2016-1tengo ‘na minchia tanta, tengo ‘na minchia accussì / 2016 / 1 cot, 24 pencils, porn magazines, kleenex / site specific installation at montefiascone’s former prison / italy

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photos by giovanni de angelis

we can be artists just for one day

“call it then what you wish / joy! heart! love! god! / i have no name for it! / names are sound and smoke / veiling heaven’s bright glow” (“faust”, w. goethe) / “…oh-oh-oh-ohh, oh-oh-oh-ohh, just for one day” (“heroes”, david bowie) / invention is a permission / diversity and approval are a certificate / the (art)work is a stamp / do not stamp! / bureaucratic hypertrophy.

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we can be artists just for one day / 2016 / printed metal, wood, stamp, buffer / variable dimensions.

mauro-cuppone_we-can-be-artists-just-for-one-day_sign_stamp_contemporary-art_david-bowie-heroes_performance_maam-rome_2016_x

we can be artists just for one day / april 23rd 2016 / the stamp / maam / rome / italy.

i’m not peggy guggenheim

“now peter sat outside in the courtyard. and a servant girl came to him, saying, “you also were with jesus of galilee.” but he denied it before them all, saying “i do not know what you are saying.” and when he had gone out of the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “this fellow also was with jesus of nazareth.” but again he denied with an oath, “i do not know the man!” and a little later those who stood by came up and said to peter, “surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.” then he began to curse and swear, saying, “i do not know the man!” immediately a rooster crowed. and peter remembered the word of jesus who had said to him, “before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” so he went out and wept bitterly”. (matthew 26,69-75)

mauro-cuppone_peggy-guggenheim_gli-artisti-pagano-doppio_contemporary-art_sign_artist-pay-double_maam_rome_2015i’m not peggy guggenheim / 2015 / printed metal / 40 x 104 cm / permanent collection at maam / museo dell’altro e dell’altrove / rome / italy

made in china

to the director of maam (rome), giorgio de finis (to be delivered by hand) / geneva, august 12th 2015 / dear giorgio, i’m happy to announce that, after ai weiwei, i’m finally able to go beyond the borders of my country! so having suddenly taken refuge abroad, i unfortunately can’t be with you. / greetings / mauro cuppone.

made in china / 2015 / lambda print, hotel beau rivage letterhead / 33 x 95 cm

dropping a han dynasty urn (to live and die in miami)

“the artist’s act of  dropping a han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) urn to the floor destroyed a symbol of 2000 years of cultural tradition and legacy / it expresses the notion that new ideas and values can be produced through iconoclasm (the purposeful challenging of traditional beliefs, or the destruction of religious icons) / the three eight photographs that record the artist’s performance form a work of conceptual art that captures the moment when tradition is transformed and challenged by new values.” / (caption at the pérez art museum in miami of the ai weiwei artwork “dropping a han dynasty urn”).

antecedent: ai weiwei breaks a han vase (true or false) / he exposes the sequence of breaks (true or false) in front of a batch of other vases (true or false) decorated by him (true or false) / a visitor enjoys the artwork of the artwork imitating ai weiwei, that is, breaking it (really) / i (really) photograph him and i (really) expose the artwork of the artwork to another artwork.

dropping a han dynasty urn (to live and die in miami) / 2014 /polyptych / lambda prints, newspaper

(white) colored vases

“this series consist of han dinasty vases original – one euro – made in china – colored miniature vases dipped in industrial white paint as if they were glazed / the faded richly patterned surfaces of the jars are concealed by the bright modern white, but the jars maintain their original forms / with the materials and shapes intact and only their surfaces changed, the vases challenge the viewer to consider questions about authenticity and the value and meaning of an original artwork.” / (caption at the pérez art museum in miami of the ai weiwei artwork “colored vases” ).

the artwork / operation performed on other artworks, is a hopeless ideological false / only the hope of an accident remains / can at least that be true? / If the only “reality” of the artwork consists in its destruction, then, aesthetically  speaking, the museum is a slaughterhouse, an (authentic) garbage dump yard of (false) potsherd / courtesy of a pérez  museum’s visitor.

(white) colored vases / 2014-2017 / miniature vases (2007 CE) and industrial paint

le pendu

predestined or condemned? oximoron or fractal? apollo or dionysus? / draw a card: you shall have no other science before me / “for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with god” (1 corinthians 3:19) / this world believes straight what is lefty / art is the opposite of how it looks: the angel is horned and the demon is winged / it’s the right time to make a choice / “well… what do we do?” “why don’t we just wait here for a little while? see what happens” (“the thing” by john carpenter).

mauro-cuppone_le-pendu_contemporary-art_tarot-cards_the-hanged-man_maam-rome_goldrake_mazinga_gundam_statue_2015le pendu / 2015 / fiberglass, hemp rope / 180 x 400 x 110 cm

mauro-cuppone_le-pendu_contemporary-art_tarot-cards_the-hanged-man_maam-rome_goldrake_mazinga_gundam_statue_2015_2permanent collection at maam / museo dell’altro e dell’altrove / rome / italy

anarchy in fur (mink is alive and fights with us)

“freedom is not something you are given, but something you have to take” (meret oppenheim) / is it the anarchy that has the snob r or is it the contemporary art that is hairy? / alpha and omicron / for sure sensuality can change the world!

mauro-cuppone_anarchy-in-fur_visone_mink_fur_contemporary-art_meret-oppenheim_2015vanarchy in fur (mink is alive and fights with us) / 2015 / ecofur, polystyrene / 50 x 50 x 4 cm / permanent collection at maam / museo dell’altro e dell’altrove / rome / italy

working title

a world upside down?! / a nursery rhyme for children / a stupid joke as a looking glass / oh noo… noo… it was not me!… / looking glasses are not made to be read / if you have read this you are already dumb!

mauro_cuppone_working-title_scemo-chi-legge_contemporary-art_mirror_dumb_joke_2014_3working title / 2014 / mirror, wood / 598 x 94 x 4,5 cm

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERApermanent collection at maam / museo dell’altro e dell’altrove / rome / italy

the beginning

win win win! / new rules! no more rules! / oops!!… aces up one’s sleeve are over / let’s play jokers too! / all of us are cheaters / “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” batman said.

mauro_cuppone_the-beginning_contemporary-art_the end_playing-cards_joker_cheat_2014the beginning / 2014 / playing cards, fabric / variable dimensions

 

not here

“squire trelawney, dr. livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about treasure island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, i take up my pen in the year of grace 17- and go back to the time when my father kept the admiral benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof”/ treasure island / ‪robert louis stevenson‬

not here x sito 2not here / march 2014 / site specific installation at maam / museo dell’altro e dell’altrove / rome / italy 

not here x sito1not here / march 2014 / site specific installation at maam / rome / 2000×2000 cm

mauro_cuppone_not-here_maam_participative-viral-art-project_land-art_Rome_via-prenestina_Casa-Occupata_2014_google

mauro_cuppone_not-here_maam_participative-viral-art-project_land-art_Rome_via-prenestina_Casa-Occupata_2014_google2not here/ © google maps / https://www.google.it/maps/place/Maam/@41.8950525,12.595211,232m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x132f62e18f58ccb7:0x69d3c7928c29ec6a?hl=it

not here / instructions for the reproduction of the work of art in the age of its technical reproducibility

“not here” is a mark drawn over a map or a target / a contradiction / the pointing out of an absence and the denial of a presence / the ninja’s “nin-jutsu” (“the art of moving unseen”) and the utopia or “ou-topos” (“the place that does not exist”) / designed to be seen from above (once god’s view and today google earth’s view).

“not here” is a “political” statement / it paints the map of occupied spaces in rome and other cities (and “protects” them) for the right to have a house / it is a utopia achieved.

the “instructions” allow anyone to replicate it by painting it on the ground or on a roof / better if it’s reproduced in its original size (approximately 20×20 m) or larger / follow carefully the guidelines and the proportions given.
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mauro-cuppone_not-here_participative-viral-art-project_land-art_rome_occupied-spaces_2014_instructions-english11.jpg

mauro-cuppone_not-here_participative-viral-art-project_land-art_rome_occupied-spaces_2014_instructions-english2.jpgnot here / april 2014 / instructions for the reproduction of the work of art in the age of its technical reproducibility

not here on the moon / 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101

after the earth, the moon too is “not here” / the message has already been sent to the moon and then… beyond the solar system / like the pioneer 10 plaque trying to intercept extraterrestrial life.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 / december 2014 / anodized aluminum, paint / 22,9 x 15,2 x 0,2 cm / permanent collection at maam / museo dell’altro e dell’altrove / rome / italy

pink industrial signage #1

“no animal shall kill any other animal” and “all animals are equal” wrote orwell / are we not men? we are devo! / good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm” / “and by dint to exterminate animals, it was realized that even suppress the man did not require a great effort” wrote erasmus

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERApink industrial signage # 1 / 2014 / painted metal / 120×90 cm / site specific installation at maam / museo dell’altro e dell’altrove / rome / italy

 

the toothpick’s dream

hold the toothpick with your fingers / moisten the tip and insert it in the mouth / insert the tip into the space between the teeth / make a gentle movement from the outside to the inside and vice versa / forbidden games: shaken not stirred (dreaming of a playmate) / frogs ask zeus for a king / the scepter looks large to those who are little.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAthe toothpick’s dream / 2014 / toothpicks, paper, olive pits / variable dimensions

fart

“l’objet d’art, par définition, est le crocodile empaillé” / …and this is art with a capital F / “le pet est à l’origine du souffle” said jarry / the end of ideologies left only a big stink / “hollywood is an hyperrealistic misunderstanding” screamed tarzan / …or was it baudrillard? / a star would rather shine than be part of the star system

mauro-cuppone-fart-maam-roma-afart / 2013 /  wood / 1400x350x120 cm / site specific installation at maam / museo dell’altro e dell’altrove / rome / italy

motels

back-tombs / four, five stars, galaxies / do not disturb / room with a oversight / the wall / “a dead body revenges nor injuries” / memory of a loss of memory

Ritz Carlton
ritz carlton-rear / 2013 / lambda print / 30×40 cm

best western
best western-rear / 2013 / lambda print / 30×40 cm

 

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scripta volant

in the beginning was the wor… / “we are like in autumn on the trees the leaves” / “and my book submerge it ‘where waves did not reach sounding ever” / houdini sainthood now! / “the angel of history (…) his face is turned toward the past” / mad as a hatter to be bound in the age of mechanical reproduction

scripta volant # 1 / 2013 / cut book / 31×12,5×5 cm

scripta volant # 2 / 2013 / cut book / 18x7xh3,5 cm 

scripta volant # 3 / 2022 / cut book / 20,5×8,8×5,8 cm

scripta volant # 3 / 2022 / cut book / 21,2×9,5×3 cm

scripta volant # 5 / 2022 / cut book / 11,8×5,5×2 cm

rorschach (crash) test

continuous line, life interrupted / how many encounters on the road, one does not die on the road / traces of life / projections, textures / traffic signals / decorated asphalt / looking for the lost symmetry / close up or background?

rorschach-crash-test_mauro-cuppone_rorschach-test_contemporary-art_car-accident_death_symmetry_animals_2013_1acrorschach (crash) test #1ac / diptych / 2013 / lambda print / 40×60 cm

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rorschach-crash-test_mauro-cuppone_rorschach-test_contemporary-art_car-accident_death_symmetry_animals_2013_2acrorschach (crash) test #2ac / diptych / 2013 / lambda print / 40×60 cm.

catwalks

one way / without words / without a destination / to infinity and beyond: neverending story of a toy-life / letting go / one way

hautecouturespringsummer2017 / 2017 / lambda print / 52×70 cm

pretaporter-fw1.jpgpretaporterfallwinter2013 / 2013 / lambda print / 40×30 cm

dr cyclops begins

pieces of history sewn together with the thread of fairy tales / it all adds up / “good,” nobody “! I’ll eat you last, after the companions (…) this is my gift as a sign of hospitality” / “nobody” has blinded polyphemus / oh stupid! do you invite me to fear the dwarves? we are cyclops!

dr-cyclops
dr cyclops begins / 2013 / lambda print / 3×4 cm

living dead(ly)

your beloved here laid to rest, ad memoriam / add a comment / the energy and tension between a real increasingly inconsistent “life” and a virtual increasingly frustrating “non-life” / let us look at the world of shadows looking at us / the cult of the dead is on the other side of the tombstone

1 unlikeunlike. ad memoriam / 2012 / carrara marble, bronze / 80x74x3 cm

2 add friendadd friend. ad memoriam / 2012 / carrara marble, bronze / 80x74x3 cm

3 i tweeti tweet. ad memoriam / 2012 / carrara marble, bronze / 80x74x3 cm

or the loss of (not only) culturalspatialtemporal coordinates. “and sweet to us is to be shipwrecked in this sea” / message from the hereafter, from a horizontal next world in a frustrating search of a third dimension / however deep you dig, there is nothing below / depth looks like a problem for gravediggers / 2b or not 2b: the medium is the message

4 thats the questionthat’s the question… / 2012 / carrara marble, bronze / 80x74x3 cm

5 was i herewas i here? / 2012 / carrara marble, bronze / 80x74x3 cm

6 do i knowdo i know? / 2012 / carrara marble, bronze / 80x74x3 cm

7 i drink a coffeei drink a coffee. ad memoriam / 2012 / carrara marble, bronze / 80x74x3 cm

art is self-referential. art refers to itself till you put “black over white”, virtual over actual, gesture over marble to put an end to new re-thinking. or give it a new beginning. verba volant, scripta manent. … / starting from a negation, a metropolitan cry, a predigested provocation that homologates the graffito to the epigraph / and decorates (expropriates) the feigned permanences with a jet of spray

8 artists areartists are our guides / 2012 / carrara marble, bronze / 80x74x3 cm

9 curators arecurators are our prophets / 2012 / carrara marble, bronze / 80x74x3 cm

one thousand dead ants

death “designed” by numbers: how the iconicity, seriality, irreducibility, immeasurability, mythicality of numbers can give value to nothing and viceversa. let nothing and death defy numbers and our objective thought in finding a meaning. the coffin, a symbolic anthropomorphic unity, a prime (and ultimate) number, a precious gold bullion in warranty of the social exspendability of the cult, is “estranged”, curtailed to dimensions to which that cult is unknown (the ones of an ant) and multiplied into an unverifiable number (but declared 1000) that ritualizes the true tragedy, the tragedy of anonymity.

1000 dead antsone thousand dead ants / 2012 / 1000 bronze coffins / (2×0,8×0,6 cm each) variable dimensions

one thousand dead ants / “ostrale biennale 020” robotron kantine / dresden / germany

toward the light

a fixed image, an electrifying perspective. / plural and insignificant lives are approaching them. according to choice, chance or dna. / for an agonizing moment they become the protagonists: / in a flash they come out of the darkness of anonymity / and without knowing they have already entered into history, / as (un)foreseen supernumeraries of an infinite storyboard.
it seems you are flying away, but on the contrary you always come back, / as manyfold protagonists of nothing. / the moral of Icarus or of the search for pure energy: / god cannot look into your eyes, / you can only be content / with having him behind your shoulders. / the video is what you cannot see, / what is beyond the projection cone.

toward the light / 2011 / video / loop 2,50 min

walk on fame

all roads lead to rome: different but common lives do not want to be forgotten or remembered. both the promenades, the one of remembrance and the one of oblivion, are paved avenues leading to hell (the hell of homologation)

ameliaamelia (sunset boulevard I) / 2011 /marble, graniglia, brass / 91x91x3 cm

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kimkim (sunset boulevard II) / 2011 / marble, graniglia, brass / 91x91x3 cm

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muammarmuammar (sunset boulevard III) / 2011 / marble, graniglia, brass / 91x91x3 cm

the final kiss

“le chat et la souris”: fear and love / “love that on gentle heart doth swiftly seize” / which is the gesture capable of revealing the traps of love and death? / “swift , swift or time is lost for lack of love” / salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo. put’em together and what have you got”: bidibibodibiboo! / but was not a squirrel? / it’s time to lay an arabesqued shroud over our most obscene flashes of emotion / et voilà! fashion über alles.

the final kissthe final kiss / 2011 / embalmed mice, hermes foulard / variable dimensions

ahab’s syndrome

“call me ishmael. (…) when ever i find myself growing grim about my mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly november in my soul; whenever i find myself involuntary pausing before coffin warehouses; and branging up the rear of every funeral i meet (…) then i account it high time to get the sea as soon as i can” / “mirrors would do well to reflect a little more before sending back images” / who (among us) does he feel enough daring (ishmael) to venture towards undiscovered destinations,fascinated by extreme characters (achab) seeking the unseekable (moby dick)?

mauro-cuppone_art_ahab-syndrome_death_coffin_fashion_chanel_griffe_4ahab’s syndrome III / 2010 / wood, metal / 190x60x42 cm / permanent collection at palazzo collicola museum / spoleto / italy

 

ahabsyndrome1ahab’s syndrome I / 2010 / wood / 190x60x42 cm .

 

ahabsyndrome2ahab’s syndrome II / 2010 / wood, fabric / 190x60x42 cm ..

 

ahabsyndrome3ahab’s syndrome IV / 2010 / wood, metal, plexiglass / 190x60x42 cm .

 

ahabsyndrome5ahab’s syndrome V / 2010 / wood, ecofur, steel / 190x60x42 cm .

 

ahabsyndrome6ahab’s syndrome VI / 2010 / wood / 190x60x42 cm

ahab’s syndrome / the performance

” (…) but the reason why the grave-digger made music must have been because there was none in his spade, sir. but the caulking mallet is full of it. hark to it.” / “aye, and that because the lid there’s a sounding-board; and what in all things makes the sounding board is this – there’s naught beneath” / “i only am escaped alone to tell thee (the book of job)”

ahab’s syndrome / the performance / from ss. giovanni and paolo’s ex church to palazzo collicola arti visive museum / spoleto / italy / 9th october 2010

rips

to be (ready) or not to be (ready) / the last show (must go on) / advertising for the dead / memento vivere

tela armani 

r.i.p.a. / 2009 /ink print on canvas / 92x132x4 cm

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tela chanel

r.i.p.c. / 2009 / ink print on canvas / 92x132x4 cm

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tela gaultier

r.i.p.g. / 2009 / ink print on canvas / 92x132x4 cm

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tela moschino

r.i.p.m. / 2009 / ink print on canvas / 92x132x4 cm

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tela paciotti

r.i.p.p. / 2009 / ink print on canvas / 92x132x4 cm

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tela valentino

r.i.p.v. / 2009 / ink print on canvas / 92x132x4 cm

r.r.i.p.

we lost our way in the woods / a crystals hell / and sleeping beauty? / but then… is she (still) really beautiful?

rrip

R.R.I.P. / 2009 / glass, cut flower / 10x28x8 cm

in loving memory

if an idea could live forever – that forever human – and all the pieces of the human experience, his roots unpredictable, his adventures unknown, his unexpressed fantasies, assembled and ignited by a spark of life after death, from the lighting bolt of insight, this mini creature, this romanticism semi-mobile should always propel ahead the engineer that drives him through the streets of the world.

in loving memory 1

In loving memory / 2009 / fiberglass / 117×181 cm

handustrial

(featuring massimo lunardon)

the packaging sleep generates monsters / holy-damned soul / victorian outgrowths cover the ill-lived pleasures of pandora’s box / rub aladdin’s lamp to release the genie / it will make all of your wishes come true / beware, this pig has plastic legs!

one none

one/none / 2004 / glass, bottles

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litro kg

litro/kg / 2004 /glass, jar