Marisa Merz – The Dance of the Hours
Curated by Francesco Manacorda with Marianna Vecellio, Chiara Bertola with Chiara Parisi, and Beatrice Merz with Sébastien Delot
29 October 2026 – 4 April 2027 Manica Lunga, Third floor
Marisa Merz
Senza titolo (Untitled), 1997
paraffin, lead, copper wire, water, motor
3 9/16 x 33 1/16 x 34 5/8 in
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino
on loan from
Fondazione per l’ArteModerna e Contemporanea CRT,2004
Photo Paolo Pellion
Marisa Merz – The Dance of the Hours
The exhibition is part of the exhibition project Marisa Merz – The Dance of the Hours, organized with Fondazione Merz, Turin, and GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin.
Marisa Merz, the only female protagonist of the Arte Povera movement, employed multiple expressive languages: painting, sculpture, drawing, video, and installation. On the occasion of the centenary of Merz’s birth, three major Italian institutions are jointly organizing an exhibition dedicated to the artist, conceived in three acts and curated by a different team for each exhibition venue. The three chapters aim to bring to life a collective and multifaceted portrait of the artist that reflects the depth of her contribution to the evolution of Italian and global art.
The exhibition at Castello di Rivoli will begin with the reconstruction of “E il naufragar m’è dolce in questo mare”, an important exhibition project that the artist presented in 1980 at the Turin gallery Tucci Russo and later replicated at the Venice Biennale the same year.
In keeping with the artist’s practice, the installation will constitute the exhibition’s core, from which themes and research will unfold. The exhibition will take the shape of an ‘expanded restrospective’ and include the participation of contemporary artists who are formally or conceptually inspired by Marisa Merz, or who continue her innovative work, procedurally centered on transformation and continuous additive reworking.
