10.05.07 | 24.09.07

Senza titolo [Untitled] 1957 Frog pond 1957 untitled 1957 Achrome 1960 - 1961 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Merda d'artista [Artist's Shit] 1961 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1959 Achrome 1961 - 1962 Achrome 1961 - 1962 Achrome 1962 Achrome 1962 Achrome 1958 Achrome 1962 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1962 le cose 1956 Untitled 1956 Untitled 1956 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1957 - 1958 Achrome 1958 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1961 - 1962 Achrome 1960 Achrome 1959 - 1960 Untitled 1957 8 tavole di accertamento 1958 - 1960 sculpure egg 1960 sculpture egg 1960 Linea 15,81 1959   Tavole d'accertamento Gorgonia 1961 Achrome 1959 - 1960 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1961 - 1962 white rotor 1958 Corpo d’aria n.28 1959 - 1960 Fiato d'artista 1960 Achrome 1962 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1961 - 1962 magic base - living sculpture 1961 Uova scultura 1960 Achrome 1957 - 1958 Achrome 1961 Merda d’artista (n.63) 1961 Magisk Sokkel Nr. 2 1961 Achrome 1960 Achrome 1958 Achrome 1959 - 1960 Achrome 1961 Achrome 1958 Achrome 1958 - 1959 line mt 1140 1961 Achrome 1961 Achrome 1962 Linea m 7200 1960 Achome 1957 - 1958 Achrome 1957 - 1958 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1961 Achrome 1961 - 1962 Achrome 1961 - 1962 Achrome 1962 Achrome 1962 Achrome 1961 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1959 Achrome 1962 Achrome 1960 - 1961 Achrome 1959 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1961 Achrome 1962 Achrome 1962 Magisk Sockkel nr 2 (base magica) 1961 Placentarium (project) 1960 Achrome 1961 Achrome 1958 - 1959 Achrome 1961 - 1962 Achrome 1962 Achrome 1958 - 1959

Piero Manzoni

Linea di lunghezza infinita

1960

Courtesy :

From 1959 to 1961 Manzoni painted lines in ink onto rolls of paper of different lengths, which he packaged in cylindrical black cardboard containers. These tubes had a label stating the month and year of execution, the length of the line in centimeters and a certificate of authenticity. On July 4, 1960 (between 4pm and the 6.55pm), in a printing works at Herning in Denmark, Manzoni created his longest line (7,200 metes), which he vacuum-sealed in a chromium-plated metal cylinder and then buried it so it could be unearthed by chance some time in the future. The artist’s aim was that this would be the first of a series of very long lines to be left in all the world’s principal cities. The sum total of the lengths of the lines in this series was suppose to measure the circumference of the earth. Manzoni also planned to trace a white line right around the meridian of Greenwich, and in 1960 finally conceived the Line of infinite length: a wooden cylinder without openings which ideally contained a line which exists only as a pure concept. With the Lines, his research, starting from the restricted perimeter of the white canvas, had come to objectify, mentally and physically, endless time and total space in which – since not even the possible misunderstanding of the picture existed any more – all the questions of form, color, depth and dimensions no longer had any sense and the artist could embrace complete freedom. “Why worry about how to place a line in a space?” wrote Manzoni in 1960. “You can simply trace a very long line to infinity…The only dimension is time. It goes without saying that a ‘line’ is neither a horizon nor a symbol, and is not valid as more or less beautiful but as more or less a line: to the degree that it is … It is not a question of articulating messages…There is nothing to say: there is only being, there is only living.”

From 1959 to 1961 Manzoni painted lines in ink onto rolls of paper of different lengths, which he packaged in cylindrical black cardboard containers. These tubes had a label stating the month and year of execution, the length of the line in centimeters and a certificate of authenticity. On July 4, 1960 (between 4pm and the 6.55pm), in a printing works at Herning in Denmark, Manzoni created his longest line (7,200 metes), which he vacuum-sealed in a chromium-plated metal cylinder and then buried it so it could be unearthed by chance some time in the future. The artist’s aim was that this would be the first of a series of very long lines to be left in all the world’s principal cities. The sum total of the lengths of the lines in this series was suppose to measure the circumference of the earth. Manzoni also planned to trace a white line right around the meridian of Greenwich, and in 1960 finally conceived the Line of infinite length: a wooden cylinder without openings which ideally contained a line which exists only as a pure concept. With the Lines, his research, starting from the restricted perimeter of the white canvas, had come to objectify, mentally and physically, endless time and total space in which – since not even the possible misunderstanding of the picture existed any more – all the questions of form, color, depth and dimensions no longer had any sense and the artist could embrace complete freedom. “Why worry about how to place a line in a space?” wrote Manzoni in 1960. “You can simply trace a very long line to infinity…The only dimension is time. It goes without saying that a ‘line’ is neither a horizon nor a symbol, and is not valid as more or less beautiful but as more or less a line: to the degree that it is … It is not a question of articulating messages…There is nothing to say: there is only being, there is only living.”

Linea 15,81

1959

Soncino (Bs) 1933 | Milano 1963
Manzoni was born in Soncino, in the province of Cremona, on July 13th 1933, of counts Meroni Manzoni di Chiosca and Poggiolo. He studied in Milan at the Leone XIII classical ...
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