The Foundation Dedicated to Mario and Marisa Merz Had Big Plans to Celebrate Its 15th Anniversary in Italy. Then the Pandemic Hit

The Fondazione Merz, the contemporary art center in Italy named
after the groundbreaking Arte Povera artist Mario Merz and
founded by his daughter, Beatrice, celebrates its 15th anniversary
on April 29 in circumstances its leadership could hardly have
imagined just months ago.

Turin, the northern Italian city where the foundation is
located, remains on lockdown, and nearly 28,000 people across the
country have died from the coronavirus. Once-bustling cities
have become ghost towns, and hospitals are still reeling from a
record influx of patients.

Like other institutions in the country, the Fondazione Merz
is closed, and its anniversary exhibition—“Push the Limits,” with an all-female lineup of
17 artists, including Barbara Kruger, Katharina Grosse, and Carrie
Mae Weems—has been pushed back indefinitely. (Merz hopes it will
open in September.) 

Two other shows, devoted to
Bertille Bak, the winner of last year’s Merz prize,
and Michal Rovner,
have been postponed to
2021.

“It is a surreal experience,”
Beatrice Merz, the foundation’s president, tells Artnet News. “Initially it
seemed as though we had been catapulted into a film. But it has
gone on too long to be anything but real. This experience will
remain in our collective memory for a long time.”

“It’s a huge blow, both
economically and in terms of image,” she adds. “It’s a serious blow
to the Italian artistic system, which even under normal conditions
has never experienced financial glory.”

Even large institutions, such as
Turin’s Egyptian Museum, are struggling as they lose income from
ticket sales, and may continue to suffer even after the pandemic
ends if people are reluctant to visit public
spaces. If one thing is
to come out of all this, Merz hopes the government will recognize
the value cultural tourism brings to the Italian
economy. 

“For the world, Italy is
synonymous with culture, and its name is intertwined with
creativity and artistic heritage,” she says. “Every economic sector
is in some way linked to the cultural sector.” 

In the meantime, while its physical location is closed, and with
its concerts and shows expected to resume no earlier than December,
the foundation will stream its
summer concert series online in July. It is also recruiting
performers to create a new concert that will be streamed live on
the foundation’s website. As the various parts will be played
separately from musicians’ homes, Merz hopes to create an
interactive, video-game-like experience after the fact, in which
audiences can manipulate the score by switching different musical
recordings on and off, and changing their order.

In addition, a series of weekly talks on Instagram, including
discussions with crime reporter Salvatore Cusimano, actress Pamela
Villoresi, and economist Marco Zatterin, will begin in May 3. The
foundation is also sharing
moments from its archives on Instagram. One of its most memorable
exhibitions was a 2009
show of the German artist Wolfgang Laib, who invited 45 Brahmins
from South India to hold a week-long fire ritual to rid the world
of negative energy.

“Maybe we should call them back
today,” Merz muses.

But she says her favorite moment
in the foundation’s history was the day it opened
its exhibition space.
“We managed to make a wish come true,” she
recalls. 

In the near term, Italy is preparing to ease lockdown
restrictions, and museums will be allowed to begin reopening on May
18. In this moment, Merz says, it is essential to develop new
priorities.

“It is time to leave aside selfishness, self-praise, and
arbitrary provocations and to give life and visibility to a culture
capable of looking at the world on several levels and from
different directions,” Merz says. “Only this kind of culture can
help us.”

The post The Foundation Dedicated to Mario and Marisa Merz
Had Big Plans to Celebrate Its 15th Anniversary in Italy. Then the
Pandemic Hit appeared first on artnet News.