Movements of the Earth and the Moon on an Axis

Mario Merz is one of the premier exponents of the Italian arte povera movement. Working with objets trouvés of a “poor” quality, Merz was fascinated by the creative potential that stems from the opposing principles of nature and civilization. More than anything, however, he was interested in questions related to the fundamental needs of existence.

In 1968 Merz created his first igloo installation, which subsequently became a motif in his artistic output. What motivated this motif was the artist’s desire to create an object that was liberated both from the wall and from sculpture in a traditional sense.The result was an igloo formed as a hemisphere,which rests on the floor and creates its own space. For Merz, the igloo was the “ideal organic shape”, one that was “both a world and a small house” and “a synthesis, a complex image”. Created in endless variants throughout the years and in a host of different materials, Merz’s igloos are as transitory as those made by the nomads. Unlike these latter igloos, however, the ones made by Merz offer neither lee nor shelter, assembled as they often are from glass, rocks, twigs, clay, and sharp metals. The works refer to an archetypical abode, while also symbolizing metaphysical space, the celestial sphere, and the universe.

Merz often associated artists with nomads, who were always on the move, felt at home everywhere, and were connected to both nature and culture. The igloo became the metaphysical form that enveloped Merz’s belief in art as something ephemeral and shifting and yet inexorably bound to the Earth and the environment. He regarded a work of art as a place of residence, as the artist’s home. The igloo became his habitat.