“My Home’s Wind”: Mario Merz in Palermo

Here, in the context of the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, there is the retrospective exhibition, set up under the great vaults of the ZAC with this now classic heritage of igloos, painted animals, neon numbers, metal structures, earth and fagots and where it really seems that a lyrical and creative wind blows freely. In autumn, in Turin, instead, there is space for meetings, study days, the presentation of a book and a documentary and finally a party, «because Mario was also a party person and so why not?».

Here, while waiting to celebrate him as befits his city, it is here in Palermo that the commemorations for the twentieth anniversary of Mario Merz’s death – it was November 9, 2003 – begin. The schedule of events is called “My Home’s Wind” and begins with this which is the first ever “personal” exhibition of the master of Arte Povera presented in the city (from June 1st to September 24th). Location – it was said at the beginning – is the ZAC, the contemporary art pavilion managed by the Merz Foundation in Turin since 2021, in the light of a three-year agreement with the Sicilian municipality which fills Beatrice Merz, Mario’s daughter as well as president of the organization named after him. «I knew this place, I had come to see some exhibitions, but never again did I think it was meant for us. Then we participated in the tender and we won it. When I went back the first time, I was like, “Oh my God, is it now?”. It is a very demanding space, wide, long and narrow, reminiscent of the Manica Lunga of the Castello di Rivoli (which you directed in the past, ed), an experience that helped me a lot when it came to thinking about and setting up new exhibitions here».

In the hands of the Piedmontese team, the pavilion was renamed ZACentrale because programmatically imagined as a crossroads station of paths, relationships and contaminations: between artists, between Palermo and Turin (where “Palermo Mon Amour” is underway in the foundation’s headquarters, photographic exhibition with shots by Enzo Sellerio, Letizia Battaglia, Franco Zecchin, Fabio Sgroi and Lia Pasqualino) and also among the many souls of the Sicilian capital, a crossroads of ancient buildings and new suburbs, of past glories and contemporary hardships. «If art didn’t speak to society, it wouldn’t help much», Beatrice explains: «We try not to be self-referential, to open up to other communities, to involve. The choice of Palermo should also be read in the light of this belief».

A kind city, an “exploding” city, she defines it, with which a “human” feeling immediately arose. The foundation had already been working in the capital for years organizing exhibitions and cultural events, «then the administration called us with the desire to deepen the collaboration». The mayor was Leoluca Orlando and Andrea Cusamano headed the Department of Culture; the municipal top management has changed, but the profitable dialogue continues (“The climate is super-positive”) and the foundation is confident that the shared work will continue even after May 2024, when the three-year agreement will expire. «The whole structure and costs of practical management, from utilities to reception to surveillance, are borne by the city; we take care of the entire artistic planning. The costs are considerable, but experience pays off».

Alongside an articulated program of exhibitions, concerts, theater and dance performances, the Palermo outpost of the Merz Foundation hosts training activities, public meetings in partnership with the other realities of the Cantieri alla Zisa, documentary interventions, the birth of a creative incubator and the opening of a specialized library dedicated to contemporary art. Mario would have loved all this.