Mario Merz
Isola della frutta aspetta settembre, 1976/1984
In the Hallen für Neue Kunst, Mario Merz connected a large glass igloo to a spacious table and auspiciously called this major work “The Island of Fruit Waits for September”. Merz didn’t tell us which September he was referring to. He chose the fall of 1987 as the first time to reward this island for having awaited the ripening and harvest. In September of 2008, the “Isola” was once again brought to life. For a short period of three weeks, the stone slabs and glass plates of the curved table are covered by copious amounts of fruit of all kinds. The diversity of its color and appearance as well as the advancing evidence of its perishable state offer us a concrete image of the passing of time and the organic process of creation and decay that all life is subject to. After this sensual demonstration, the island returns to a different temporal state – to the long phase of crystalline endurance. The poetic title is then the sole reference to nature’s cyclic processes.
Find the richly illustrated publication “Mario Merz: Isola della frutta” (2009) in our bookshop.