Pausa lavoro (mensa in fabbrica), 2013
Metal, laminated wood, motor, electronic switch, electric wires
76 × 600 × 90 cm

This work makes reference to Fibonacci Napoli (Fabbrica a San Giovanni a Teduccio), 1971, by Mario Merz. In 1971, Mario Merz embarked on a series of photographs applying the Fibonacci Sequence to social groups. Fibonacci Napoli (Fabbrica a San Giovanni a Teduccio) is made up of ten photographs of workers during their lunch break in a factory canteen in the working-class neighbourhood of San Giovanni a Teduccio, in Naples. A busy industrial district in the 1970s, San Giovanni a Teduccio now suffers from extremely high unemployment and the ascendancy of the Camorra. Each image shows the mathematical construction of subjects ranging from a single person to a group of fifty-five.

Elisabetta Benassi reproduces a canteen table and stools from the work by Merz; vibrating randomly in a space emptied of its occupants, these furnishings allude notably to the political, economic and social context created by the disappearance of manual labourers and their work.

Courtesy the artist and Magazzino, Rome

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