Tacita Dean on Marisa Merz in New Turin Centenary Exhibition
Turin institutions are marking the centenary of Marisa Merz with a sprawling, tripartite survey titled The Dance of the Hours. Opening this week, the exhibition spans the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, the Fondazione Merz, and the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino (GAM), representing a major retrospective ever dedicated to the Arte Povera artist.
A Polyphonic Approach to a Private Legacy
The scale of this collaboration is rare, intended to capture the elusive nature of an artist who famously retreated from the spotlight. The three institutions are joining forces in a manner similar to their 2005 tribute to Mario Merz, the artist’s husband and collaborator. Francesco Manacorda, co-curator of the Castello di Rivoli exhibition, describes the project as an attempt to reveal a “polyphonic” Marisa Merz, noting that the artist intentionally cultivated mystery around her life and work.
The exhibition structure reflects this complexity. While the Fondazione Merz focuses on process and transformation, GAM highlights the “monstrous domesticity” of Merz’s practice. Her early work, Living Sculpture (1966)—a sprawling construction of aluminium foil and staples—will serve as a centerpiece at GAM. The work, which once famously appeared in the 1967 avant-garde horror film The Green Monster, underscores the radical way Merz integrated maternal labor and domestic life into her artistic methodology.
The Influence of Contemporary Response
The exhibition at Castello di Rivoli incorporates responses from ten contemporary artists, including Leonor Antunes, Thea Djordjadze, and Lara Favaretto, alongside a film by Tacita Dean. Writing for the Financial Times, Dean characterizes Merz’s works as “an act of resistance.” This multi-voiced approach aims to contextualize Merz’s career, which included a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2013, despite her mid-1980s decision to largely withdraw from solo exhibitions.
Beatrice Merz, daughter of the artist and president of the Fondazione Merz, emphasizes that the family home was not merely a convenient workspace but a fundamental element of her mother’s methodology. The estate, managed by the Fondazione Merz, holds the majority of the artist’s sculptures, works on paper, and documented actions, providing the institutions with unprecedented access to material that challenges conventional interpretations of the Arte Povera movement.
Logistical Challenges of a Centenary Survey
Mounting an exhibition of this magnitude requires significant coordination, particularly when dealing with fragile, non-traditional materials like kitchen foil and sewing supplies.
The reliance on the family home as a studio, as noted by Beatrice Merz, adds layers of complexity to the provenance and display of the collection.
While the retrospective aims to solidify Merz’s place in art history, the reasons for her deliberate withdrawal from the public eye during the 1980s remain a subject of ongoing historical inquiry, with theories ranging from a desire for focused creative output to a rejection of the competitive nature of the art market.
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