Pittore in Africa (a Mario Merz), 2021
GPO-1125
Painter in Africa (to Mario Merz
Collage on antique etching
Etching 35 x 44 cm, plinth 105 x 50 x 50 cm, case 50 x 50 x 50 cm, overall dimensions 105 x 50 x 50 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso, centre: “ “Pittore in Africa” / (a Mario Merz) / Giulio Paolini / 2021”
Private collection, Turin
The antique print of a geographical map of Africa contains a reproduction of a work by Mario Merz titled Pittore in Africa (1983). At the lower left it can be viewed in its entirety. At the centre the same work is divided into two parts, arranged one on top of the other with the reproduction of the metal stretcher displaced downwards to frame the lower part of the African continent. The torn fragments, scattered freely in the central area, are from a painting by Merz himself. The ensemble of elements is “oriented” by the compass, located in the middle of the composition.
The work is not only dedicated to Mario Merz. Through a long-distance conversation it also celebrates Painting, as the author himself states: “In Africa? Of course, as Mario Merz told us, Painting has no borders except for the ones that are deposited where we cannot know… perhaps it disappears to then reappear over the course of Time”.1
1. G. Paolini, note to the work, October 2021.
| 2021-22 | Turin, Fondazione Merz, Richard Long, Giulio Paolini e Remo Salvadori da Marisa e Mario Merz, 2 November 2021 - 9 January 2022, no catalogue. |
