Marisa Merz's Sculptural Heads on Mario Merz's Spiral Tables at Galerie Marian Goodman

At Galerie Marian Goodman in Paris, from January 24 to March 9, 2002, an exhibition titled "Marisa Merz avec la participation de Mario Merz" presented a collaborative installation. Mario Merz designed spiral-shaped tables that served as pedestals for Marisa Merz's small sculpted heads in clay or plaster. The tables, with their sharp edges and minimalist rigor, almost disappear to highlight the figures. The spiral, a recurring motif in Mario's work, opens from the center toward infinity, contrasting with Marisa's inward-focused, quasi-magical religiosity. The ground floor featured this two-artist installation, while the basement displayed a series of Marisa's drawings covering all walls, executed with a tight, rapid, nervous line suggesting faces, eyes, ears, and mouths. The exhibition underscored Marisa Merz's fundamental contribution to Arte Povera, despite her earlier withdrawal from the scene. The invitation card explicitly listed both artists, though the phrasing might imply Mario as a supporting figure. The show resolved the modern sculptural problem of the pedestal, echoing Rodin's legacy, by using Mario's transparent, sturdy tables to elevate Marisa's barely defined figures.