Marisa Merz’s work is in the verge of a sculpture and an installation. It looks like a sculpture trying to break the boundaries and interact directly with the public. Once the viewer enters the room, one almost becomes part of the work, by confronting it in different ways: First, the scale of the work could easily be compared to another living being - probably one of the reasons for the brackets title. Then, the position of it in the space of the gallery is a bit disturbing, exactly the opposite of human beings - up in the air and apparently growing down. Also, there is always the sensation that these aluminium pieces might actually move, suddenly come closer… Are they alive? And if so, are they dangerous or harmless?

 

After the first impact, one can slowly start to pay attention to the details. These “creatures” might actually be flirting with one. The shimmering surface is seductive, looks like silver and sometimes even gold, attracting the eyes and, again, putting the observer in a lower position - idolizing them - which leads to an historical issue: In the mid 60s, the world was living a technological revolution, communication, politics, social life, things were definitely taking new forms and people were looking for a new identity. One of the main themes was the Space Race. The medium used (aluminium, very contemporary at the time) and the shapes constituted of layers reminds the viewer of the apparatus of the astronauts, the man on the moon mission, also represented by the colour: silver. It is valid to jut out that another artist was also working with the same colour, on the same year: Andy Warhol, Silver Clouds, 1966. On his own words: “Silver was the future, it was spacey”. Even though they worked in different places and probably with different matters, it is hard to ignore the fact that both made “flying” silver objects, as a reference to the future, technology and space, or perhaps from another point of view, relating to the past, as Warhol said silver also is the colour of the old films screen and Merz’s work might be taken as a warn to the scrap we leave behind us. No wonder the work is on the Energy and Process session of the museum.

 

Illusion. What we see depends on where we are standing and what we are willing to see. If one looks closer to any part of the work, what seemed from a distance as one single smooth body, now reveals as a joint of rough layers. What was shimmering from one corner is matted from another. And while bright pieces are shown to the public, there is a dark shadow right behind them on the walls. The contrasts are important keys to the work, they serve as a metaphor for the human being’s attributes, which also vary according to the interlocutor and the situation. Be mesmerized, but be careful not to be misguided.