Virtual Conversations about Marisa Merz
September 9–October 21, 2020
Organized in conjunction with the dedicated artist room at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this series of online conversations will focus on the work of pioneering Italian artist Marisa Merz (1926–2019). Scholars and curators pay homage to Merz’s life and legacy and meditate on aspects of the artist’s practice that are often overlooked, including: Merz’s relationship to reproductive labor, domesticity, and classical tradition; the artist’s experimentation with material and form; Merz’s connection (or lack thereof) to contemporaneous women artists in Italy and abroad; and her ambiguous position among artists associated with Arte Povera.
The series includes weekly presentations followed by Q&A from the public, moderated by program organizers Amanda Sroka (Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art) and Dr. Lara Demori (The Marcello Rumma Fellow in Contemporary Italian Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art). The concluding event features a moderated panel discussion with all presenters.
Programs take place on consecutive Wednesday afternoons from noon to 1pm EST via Zoom webinar.
Full schedule:
September 9: Time, Process and Life in the Work of Marisa Merz with Connie Butler (Chief Curator at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles) and moderated by Carlos Basualdo (The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art)
September 16: Marisa Merz: Sculptural and Film Experiments in the Kitchen, 1967–68 with Lara Conte (Associate Professor, Università di Roma Tre, Rome)
September 23: Marisa Merz: Actions, Interactions, and Performative Sculpture with Teresa Kittler (Lecturer, University of York, York)
September 30: Marisa Merz as an Anti-Penelope with Luigia Lonardelli (Curator, MAXXI, Rome)
October 7: Drawing Intimacy: Marisa Merz’s Works on Paper in the 1970s with Francesco Guzzetti (Independent Scholar, Italy)
October 14: Lead and Aluminum in Marisa Merz’s Art: Layers of Meaning with Silvia Bottinelli (Senior Lecturer, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston) and Sharon Hecker (Independent Scholar and Curator, Milan)
October 21: Panel Discussion with all speakers moderated by program organizers Amanda Sroka (Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art) and Dr. Lara Demori (The Marcello Rumma Fellow in Contemporary Italian Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art)
Credit: This program is supported by the Consulate General of Italy, Philadelphia, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, and the Daniel W. Dietrich II Fund for Excellence in Contemporary Art.
