mario merz

mario merz
l’asocialità è coscienza. la socialità è struttura
Inauguration: Thursday 26th February 2009, 7 pm - 9 pm
Exhibition site: OREDARIA Arti Contemporanee
Via Reggio Emilia, 22-24 00198 ROMA
Opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday: 10 am - 1 pm / 4 pm - 7.30 pm
Exhibition ends 23 May 2009.
OREDARIA Arti Contemporanee in Rome is proud to present a personal exhibition of Mario
Merz (Milan,1925-2003). This exhibition wishes to underline a fundamental aspect of Mario
Merz’ artistic research: his special relationship with mathematics.
The exhibition, realized with the collaboration of the Fondazione Merz in Turin, will propose a
selection of museum pieces and a series of designs, among which a totally unedited series that
refer to the world of numbers and in particular to Fibonacci.
Halfway through the 1960’s Merz’ artistic research brings him to create his ‘volumetric
pictures’ (Mila Pistoi). These are made of cloth that embodies objet trouvès, and organic or
industrial materials. The advent of the use of these materials will contribute to Merz playing a
leading role in the Arte Povera movement.
The Igloo (1969) is described as “an ideal organic form (…) worldly, and at the same time a very
small dwelling” an unconditioned space not moulded or shaped, but simply a “ hemisphere
sitting on the ground” that the artist declares fit to live in. Another example is the
Table (1973) ideally seen in a landscape environment. Both the Igloo (1969) and the
Table (1973) are primary, archetypal structures that declare their aesthetic and sociopolitical origins and represent the definitive abandoning of the picture as a means of
expression.
In 1970 Merz’ interest turns to the Fibonacci numerical series. Here we have a
progression of numbers where each number is the sum of the previous two (0, 1, 1,
2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.). The numerical sequence conceived by the Pisa mathematician,
Leonardo Fibonacci (1202), is interpreted by Merz as being emblematic of the dynamics
of the natural process of growth in the organic world, and he installs the numbers in
neon on his own works.
Merz continues to develop the Fibonacci sequence creating a series of elements mostly
natural, for instance, snail shells, branches, leaves, pine cones, horns, in a numerical
transcription that begins at zero and expands to the infinite, geometrically representing
a spiral with it’s dynamic circular thrust.
Important exhibitions put on show pictorial works that assume bigger and bigger
proportions. Rhinoceros, crocodiles, tigers, buffaloes, owls, and other ‘prehistoric’ and
archetypal animals are depicted in their natural environment.
Merz’ practice of design is given a prominent place in a series of big installations.
The artist exhibited at Carré d’Art –Musée d’Art Contemporain, Nimes (2000) and for
the first time in Latin America with a personal exhibition at Fundacion Proa, Buenos
Aires (2002).
He participated to the exhibition Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1969-1972 (2001), the
first anthology of Arte Povera in the United Kingdom at the Tate Modern (London) and
the Walker Art Center (Minneappolis).
On the 6th November, 2002, the Igloo Fountain was installed on a site at the Passante
Ferroviario, Turin.
Among the numerous awards he received, we would like to mention the Laurea Honoris
Causa (Honorary Degree) from D.A.M.S. Bologna (2001) and the Praemium Imperiale
of the Japan Art Association (2003).
On the 15th April, 2009, there will be an encounter held at the Oredaria Gallery to discuss
the relationship between Art and Mathematics. Guest speakers will includeart historian
Philippe Daverio, Michele Emmer, mathematician, Gianluca Bocchi, epistemologist
and Giovanni Maria Accame, art critic. There will also be a screening of an interview
with Mario Merz who discusses the theme in question.