Before or After, at the Same Time

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This book takes the life of the Italian multimedia artist and writer Fabio Mauri (born 1926) and the history of his family – a publishing dynasty with close connections to radical Italian art, poetry, cinema, philosophy and literature – as a starting point for a reexamination of the forces shaping Italian visual culture between the end of the Second World War and the "Years of Lead.

"Before or After, at the Same Time" combines commissioned essays and first person accounts with translated writings from the period to explore the ideas circulating in Rome and Milan in the 1950s and '60s. In doing so, it provides an alternative, anecdotal and partial perspective on a turbulent period, drawing attention to the pivotal personal and professional networks that shaped postwar Italian art. Particular focus is given to the relationship between the American and Italian art scenes in the intersection of different artistic disciplines, and the influence of Roman and Milanese cultures on the artists working in the cities.