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THE TIMELESS CENTENARY OF MARIO MERZ
The symposium and the four exhibitions celebrating the artist
Mario Merz, Igloo.
Catalogue Raisonné. Vol.1, 2024
«Oh, let me see, I spent years upon years in that room, so I don't recall exactly how old I was. I have to add that I don't have much of a sense of time. For me, time continues and never stops, and when a past period of time comes back, it is the same time, even if it has become something difference.» (Mario Merz, interviewed by Germano Celant, 1983)
At the Fondazione Merz in Turin, a symposium was held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mario Merz’s birth (Milan, 1925 - 2003). Over two days, speakers who worked closely with the artist shared their knowledgeable and heartfelt insights, shedding light on the multifaceted nature of his work and personality.
The symposium is just the tip of the iceberg of a larger initiative comprising four exhibitions in Turin, Verona, and Spoleto, alongside the presentation of the first catalogue raisonné dedicated to the Igloos. The celebrations at Fondazione Merz began with the exhibition Qualcosa che toglie il peso (Something That Removes the Weight) from July to October 2024 and continued with the second part, …e che mantiene l’assurdità della favola (…and That Preserves the Absurdity of the Fable), currently on view.
With the inauguration of the second act of the exhibition "Something that removes the weight that retains the absurdity and the lightness of the fable", Fondazione Merz presented the first volume of Mario Merz’s catalogue raisonné, dedicated entirely to the Igloos. Edited by the foundation and based on research by art historian and curator Maddalena Disch, this long-awaited volume is all the more essential considering Merz’s artistic practice, where the materials of one work often became the potential starting point for the next, embodying continuous metamorphosis and evolution.
Format: 23×27 cm
350 images in color and black-and-white
560 pages
ISBN: 9788877572615
LIBERTÀ DI AVERE IDEE CONTRASTANTI
The videos of the Symposium at the Merz Foundation, 14-15.01.2025
Second day. Hosts: Giorgio Verzotti, Antonella Soldaini, Daniela Lancioni, Vicente Todolí, Fiammetta Griccioli, Pietro Rigolo, Elisabetta Benassi, Mariano Boggia.
First day. Hosts: Beatrice Merz, Rudi Fuchs, Francesco Manacorda, Samuel Gross, Danilo Eccher, Luisa Borio, Manuel Borja-Villel, Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Dieter Schwarz, Bruno Corà, Lisa Le Feuvre, Costantino D’Orazio, Matilde Guidelli-Guidi, Simon Starling.
"I’d like someone who is guided by proliferation…
Something that removes the weight…
I think of numbers, one after the other, in a proliferating expansion…
I am a flying carpet on which to live…
That retains the absurdity and lightness of the fable…”
(Mario Merz, Voglio fare subito un libro, 1985)
"Something that removes the weight that retains the absurdity and the lightness of the fable" at the Fondazione Merz revolves around the artwork Four Tables Shaped Like Magnolia Leaves. Created in 1985 for an exhibition at Sperone Westwater, this work belongs to the "tables" series that the artist began conceptualizing in 1973. The over-twenty-meter installation consists of four elements topped with wax panels evoking organic forms. The table serves as an ideal connection between artistic creation, the domestic atmosphere, and the concept of dwelling—central themes in Merz’s practice, for which the table ultimately becomes a symbol.
With a similar symbolic intent, the iconic form of the Igloo acts as a "space within a space," embodying an increasing ambiguity between interior and exterior. For Merz, the Igloo emerged as a central motif of his artistic exploration, expanding to encompass historical, political, and aesthetic dimensions.
Since his first Igloo di Giap (1968), it is around this real yet unreal space that the artist developed a discourse of variations, contaminations, and material reuse. On display are three major Igloos from different moments in time—1989, 1997, and 2002—accompanied by the large painting Gecko at Home and the symphony of jars and neon in L’horizont de lumière traverse notre vertical du jour.
The title of the exhibitions...
The titles of the exhibitions at Fondazione Merz are drawn from the celebrated collection of unpublished writings by Mario Merz, Voglio fare subito un libro (I Want to Make a Book Right Now), first published in 1985 for his solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Zurich and reissued by hopefulmonster in 2005. Edited by Beatrice Merz with an introduction by Harald Szeemann, this work transposes Merz’s research into a different language often mirrored in his installations. His writing embodies a poetic approach rooted in enigmatic and tangible axioms tied to the fundamental themes of his work: painting, the organic, the animal, the Fibonacci sequence, the Igloo, the house, and dwelling.
Se la forma scompare la sua radice è eterna
Rocca Albornoz, Spoleto
The National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto presented "Se la forma scompare la sua radice è eterna" (If the Form Disappears, Its Root Is Eternal), a selection of installations Mario Merz created for his celebrated retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1989. In a setting vastly different from the American museum, the exhibition—which concluded in November—found a home in the halls of Rocca Albornoz, a historic building whose architecture and wall decorations bear traces of centuries of history.
In the courtyard, the deer from Doppio igloo di Porto (Double Igloo of Porto, 1998) was visible from the palace’s rooms, where works such as A Mallarmé, Nuvola rossa al tramonto (Red Cloud at Sunset), Se la forma scompare la sua radice è eterna, and a large stone Igloo were exhibited.
Concluded November 17, 2024
Rocca Albornoz, National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto
Piazza Bernardino Campello 1, Spoleto
Mario Merz a la Bourse de Commerce
Arte Povera - Pinault Collection
A major exhibition dedicated to Arte Povera recently concluded at the Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection in Paris. Beginning in the central Rotunda, the show expanded into monographic rooms devoted to the thirteen key figures of the movement.
Mario Merz shared a spacious gallery with Marisa Merz in an evocative display that united some of their most significant works. The pieces, spanning different periods and techniques, came together poetically at the center of the room around the large spiral table created by Mario Merz in 2002. This table served as a platform for Marisa’s renowned clay sculptures, Testine (Little Heads).
Concluded January 20, 2025
Bourse de Commerce - Pinault Collection
2 Rue de Viarmes, Paris
Il numero è un animale vivente
Galleria di Arte Moderna, Verona
The Achille Forti Gallery of Modern Art in Verona celebrates Mario Merz’s centenary with an exhibition centered on archetypal animals: one animal, no animal, and all animals at once. These figures, framed within the vital and dwelling concept of the Igloo, evoke a timeless and perhaps never-existent habitat.
Titled Le case girano intorno a noi o noi giriamo intorno alle case? (Do Houses Revolve Around Us, or Do We Revolve Around Houses?), the 1994–1999 Igloo embodies the sense of landscape through neon writing placed within its perimeter. The Verona exhibition incorporates works spanning different periods, including La natura è l’equilibrio della spirale (Nature Is the Balance of the Spiral, 1976) and the installation Senza titolo (Untitled, 2002), composed of newspapers, glass, and neon. Together, these works outline the oeuvre of an artist who traversed the 20th century, offering a unique social, political, and environmental perspective.
Until March 30, 2025
Achille Forti Gallery of Modern Art
Cortile Mercato Vecchio 6, Verona
Essentials Readings
Mario Merz. L'artista e l'opera. Materiali per un ritratto
Giorgio Verzotti
Giorgio Verzotti guides readers through the key moments of Mario Merz's life and career, offering a portrait that weaves together the artist's work across public and private spheres, impulsive decisions, curious coincidences, and radical choices. The book, rich with firsthand accounts, was first published in 2018 by Christian Marinotti Edizioni and was thoughtfully republished in English in 2020 by Magazzino Italian Art, featuring the addition of a photographic portfolio of works from the Olnick Spanu Collection.
The author discussed the book during the symposium held at Fondazione Merz in a talk titled Mario Merz: An Undesired Biography.
Igloos
Hangar Bicocca. Curated by Vicente Todolì.
The most comprehensive exhibition of Mario Merz’s Igloos was accompanied by a catalogue published by Mousse Publishing. Edited by Vicente Todolì, the catalogue was released during the Igloos exhibition at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca in Milan (October 25, 2018–February 24, 2019).
Presented as a photo album, the publication features texts by Germano Celant, Lisa Le Feuvre, and Pietro Rigolo, as well as a conversation between Mario Merz and Harald Szeemann. Numerous illustrations reconstruct the intricate universe surrounding the Igloos. The catalogue concludes with a glossary by Mariano Boggia, reflecting on the key concepts that defined the artist’s monumental body of work.
To flip through online
Mario Merz
Catalogue of the retrospective at the Guggenheim, New York, 1989
Mario Merz. Che cos'è una casa
Catalogue of the artshow at the Fundação de Serralves, Porto, 1999
Magazines
News
15.01.2025
Rudi Fuchs: «Mario Merz comprendeva l'essenziale umiltà dell'opera»
Rudi Fuchs - Il Giornale dell'Arte
14.01.2025
Beatrice Merz "Mio padre Mario contro la guerra"
Intervista di Miriam Massone a Beatrice Merz - La Stampa
14.01.2025
Cent'anni di Mario Merz e della "Libertà di avere tre idee contrastanti"
Nicoletta Biglietti - Artslife
14.01.2025
Cent'anni di Mario Merz. Il mondo dell'arte ricorda il rivoluzionario dell'Arte povera
Alessandro Martini, Maurizio Francesconi - Corriere della Sera
From the Archive
Dicembre 1979
Mario Merz: The Artist as a Nomad
Germano Celant - Artforum
Dicembre 1983 - Gennaio 1984
Mario Merz - Il ritorno del mito
Mirella Bandini - Flash Art
Dicembre 1989
Mario Merz - Guggenheim Museum, New York
Donald Kuspit - Artforum
Gennaio 2004
Germano Celant - Artforum
Updates
The Kunstmuseum Bern will host a solo exhibition of Marisa Merz from January 30 to June 1, 2025. Curated by Livia Wermuth in collaboration with Fondazione Merz, the second venue of the art show firstly opened at the LAM Museum in Lille, 2024.
Marisa Merz. Listen to the space
Travelling Through Mario Merz's Places with Google Street View
A curated gallery featuring some of the artist’s public installations.
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