Title of the work:

"Mosaico di Polaroid"

Technical specifications:

• Milan, 2012;
• 129x46.5 cm - unique ex.;
• Mixed media made on Polaroid;
• Courtesy Archivio Franca Rame Dario Fo.

Additional information:

"One afternoon in 2012, Dario started drawing on some expired Polaroids that I had brought him, some “sketches”. The idea was to try something for a poster.

Dario calls Franca: “Do we have a syringe in this house?”

“Here is your dear syringe, dear “Master”! Do what you want, but don’t hurt yourself and don’t make a mess around, you two!”

Dario asks me if we can inject some color into the Polaroid. I inject the color and he, with a light pressure of his fingers, moves the color between the two films that enclose the photograph. We barely have time to finish all the photos when Franca arrives to call us for dinner.

I delicately take all the Polaroids and put them back in the box. We will finish them next time as soon as Dario and Franca have a moment to spare.

Unfortunately there was no next time […]

But a few years later, when you least expect it, the thought of Polaroid comes back to the forefront more pressing than ever.

I was invited by Mattea Fo (grandson of Franca and Dario) to talk about the “Franca Archivista” in memory of the tenth anniversary of her passing.

After the speech I go to the parking lot and see a billboard with a sort of colored chessboard, made up of some squares with drawings. A light immediately comes on, a flash that stuns me, the memories they come knocking again: Dario's Polaroids!

They had the drawings in the center and the colors on the sides. I find a piece of paper in the car and try to make a sketch of what was in my head: the message that someone wanted to convey to me was very clear!

As soon as I get home I immediately go and get the three boxes of Polaroids and lay them out on the table, trying to remember the image that dazzled me.

After 11 years, here is what I had helped Dario to do, convinced that it is what he had in mind that afternoon in 2012."

This lot was donated by Archivio Franca Rame Dario Fo.