Mario Merz
*1925 Milano - 2003 Torino, Italy
The work of Italian artist Mario Merz opens an important chapter into the European art history of the 2nd half of the 20th century. From the 1960s on, he examined natural processes, humanity’s role in nature, and our responsibility toward it – anticipating contemporary debates about the planet, our shared home, and the essentials of human existence.
In the 1950's he started out as a painter reflecting Abstract Expressionism, but in the political upheavals of the 1960s he turned to new materials - clay, stone, brushwood, tar, wire mesh, and neon - and developed a sculptural language. In 1968 he created his first Igloos, archaic, nomadic structures that also evoke cosmic forms.
His work took shape within Arte Povera, the movemebt defined by Germano Celant and internationally recognised alongside Land Art and Conceptural Art.
In the 1970s Merz introduced the Fibonacci sequence as a symbol of natural growth and the infinity of space and time, a motif that recurred throughout his installations.
Untitled (1994 - 1995) - a double igloo consisting of a large glass with a smaller stone igloo is located inside of the Telekom Headquarters and is linked by neon Fibonacci numbers with a large stone igloo standing outside. The work was originally created for the opening of the new building and installed by the artist himself. After over a decade, it is now on view again at the Headquarters.
Untitled, 1994-95
Double igloo located internally:
Stone igloo: steel tubular structure, stones, clamps, neon tubes, neon numbers
ø 200 cm
Glass igloo: steel, tubular structure, glass, clamps
ø 400 cm
Igloo located externally:
Steel tubular structure, stones, clamps, neon number in Plexiglass case
ø 400 cm
Fibonacci numbers:
Four neon numbers (8, 13, 21 and 34) in
Plexiglass case, three neon numbers (55, 89 and 144) in Plexiglas cases
mounted on metal supports
