Marisa Merz at the MAXXI Museum
During 2012 (until 27th of September) the MAXXI Museum of Rome displays the works of Marisa Merz, winner of the 2001 Venice Biennale, and other contemporary artists in the exhibition A proposito di Marina Merz. Through this exhibition, the Curatorial Department of MAXXI explores the boundaries of contemporary Italian art of the 90s and the influence artists from previous generations have.
In one of the installations (Senza Titolo) , Merz uses all familiar materials that are proper of her own feminine dimension which is a constant sign that marks her work. She takes the plasticity of clay, the ductility of copper and the fragility of paper, all warm materials that give the idea of ??the feminine, home, of protection.
The character that the artist prints throughout he work, is what MAXXI has taken into account for their research, as Merz aesthetic view has influenced a posterior generation.
Marisa Merz was born in Turin, Italy in 1931. Her work was marked by Arte Povera, a trend that emerged in Turin in 1967 and dominated the creation of art in Italy. It was characterized by the use of simple, everyday materials, to reject traditional art using marble, bronze and other fine materials. It was argued that a work of art had to be eternal, however, it was also associated to the cycles of life and therefore should be temporary.
Merz’s works will be marked by these arguments, so she will use simple daily and closely materials associated with femininity such as tissues. In her beginning she used woven fiber and copper wires. She uses the resource of fabric to mark the territory of female art rejecting male culture in all spheres of life. In her works a printed radical critique of society is presents, because it breaks with the relationship of the tissue or the craftsmanship and feminine domesticity used to express abstractions of art.
She has maintained an artistic practice that goes hand in hand with her life so it is well recognized that her feminism has been expressed throughout her work and through the forms and materials she used. Her creation are marked by the delicate and harmonious curved shapes, but always have small dents or casual or signs of bumps and imperfections.
Her work consists of drawings and sculptures that reflect the complex patterns of thought, marked by a period that look on art and the artist’s role in society, with his own existential dimension.
It is precisely this existential dimension that marks a difference with other artists of Arte Povera, enriching her jobs and surpassing the timing of an artistic movement through a new generation following her footsteps, such as Ketty La Roca, Paola Pivi, Claudia Losi, Rosa Barba, Kara Walker, Elisabetta Benassi, among others.
For more information: http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it/2012/01/26/maxxi-artecollezione-a-proposito-di-marisa-merz/
Nancy Guzman
If you decided to rent apartments in Rome and enjoy pleasant moments, do not forget to go to the Museum MAXXI and see the wonderful work of Maria Merz.
