Materials	Wire netting and hemp
Height:	cm. 100.00
Width:	cm. 50.00

Marisa Merz

Untitled

1966

 

Courtesy :

 

 

 

In Marisa Merz’ production a dialogue takes place between the public area of the gallery and her own inner private world. The “arte povera” movement demands complete fusion between
the artistic product and external reality: the concept of the eternity of form is replaced by the need for a militant art, one capable of looking at the dynamics of
contemporary society and of accepting an ontological condition of precariousness. The works of Marisa Merz are marked by their different temporal spheres: that of objective time, tied to the flux of events, and that of memory. Memory is voluntary when it includes fragments of the artist’s private existence (her daughter’s name often appears in the titles of her works) and involuntary when it presents archetypes of the world of women. The action of weaving is one which has always been associated with the patience of women, shut away in the private space of their homes. The artist feels she wants to change this outlook, to open it up – the objects, sensations and atmosphere bound up with the familiarity of her home can merge into art, thus becoming part of the collective heritage.
Untitled of 1966 is the union of a cylindrical copper net and compositions of hemp threads held together by knots which tie them to the netting. An indissoluble web is created between these separate parts, which cannot exist on their own. The softness of the hemp threads is not in conflict with the copper mesh but rather seems to wrap it around: all the materials are worked by handcrafting. Marisa Merz’ works are handmade goods indissolubly linked to their creator, who has said that «There has never been any division between my life and my work».