explore by subject
- Analysis
- Art History
- Cinema
- Contemporary
- Contemporary Art
- Evolution
- Fondazione Merz
- La favola dell'arte
- La stanza del mondo
- Literature
- Music
- Narrative
- Philosophy
- Photography
- Politics
- Science
- Society
- Theater
- Ultralibri
- Video
- Writings by artist
books
-
Dubbio sull'armonia
pages: 60
format: 21 x 30 cm
date of publication: February 1990
binding: paperback
language: Italian
isbn 9788877570261
€6,20
Written by an avant-garde musician, this book confirms the typical critical attitude of the musical avant-garde towards classical theories. But it must be immediately said that the book does not deal with Theory of Harmony but only with Harmony. It is about the concept that in the field of music theory and didactics is used as an implicit foundation for so many behaviours and precepts. In these pages we do not analyse the musical mechanisms but the conceptual mechanisms. It examines whether the preceptual discourse in music is meaningful or not, and what contradictions and consequences it entails. The essay, written in the form of thoughts, phrases, aphorisms, often crosses over into existential fields and is undoubtedly the testimony of a situation into which we are ourselves drawn. -
L'arciere da un occhio e mezzo
introduction and notes by Jean Claude Marcadé
translation by Renata Francheschi
pages: 344
format: 16 x 22,5 cm
date of publication: July 1989
images: 44
binding: paperback
language: Italian
isbn 98877570016
€18,08
“The title is symbolic: the Shiite archer, representing the Asian creator, galloping on the border between the Western and Eastern worlds, his face turned towards the immense East (the Russian multinational empire, Persia, China, Japan, India), with only half an eye observing what comes from the West. The meaning of the metaphor is clear, perhaps arguable, but deliberately provocative: Russian avant-garde art exists in itself; it finds the necessary forms, the creative inspiration, on its own terrain”. Benedikt Livšic's memoirs, which cover a crucial period of artistic development in Russia, are of fundamental importance in the reconstruction of the epic of the expressive revolution of the first two decades of the twentieth century. Introduction by Jean Claude Marcadé. -
I want to write a book right now
curated by Beatrice Merz
introduction by Harald Szeemann
translation by Paul Blanchard
pages: 194
format: 18 x 26,5 cm
date of publication: July 1989
binding: paperback
language: Italian
isbn 8877570253
€15,49
This book is the english translation of the artist’s writings first published in 1985. In line with the work system adopted by Mario Merz, the transcription of the texts does not maintain a chronological order, but identifies three moments of typological distinction in which different referential identities emerge in the development of the writing. “Voglio fare subito un libro” (I want to make a book right now) is a collection of published and unpublished texts written by Mario Merz up to 1985, in which the dialogue between the ’forces’ of art and those of literature erupts at times luxuriantly and brilliantly and at times harshly and critically; it is concentrated or dispersed in various topics that flow through the pages like a river in flood. The poetic freedoms that Mario Merz appropriates in the act of writing are interwoven with suggestions and references to his art. An art managed on the basis of inventions: of architectural structures (the progression of tables, spirals or the better-known igloos...), of pictorial constructions (which have developed since the birth of Merz the artist), on the natural cyclical and numerical development of the elements (the application of Fibonacci’s numerical progression), on the use of materials rejected by society (broken glass, old newspapers...), on strategic statements (“Se il nemico si concentra perde terreno, se si disperde perde forza”, “Objet cache-toi”, “Città irreale…”) which are included in his works as axioms and emerge as traces in the reading of this book.” Harald Szeemann -
Gli incroci del labirinto
pages: 311
format: 16 x 22,5 cm
date of publication: March 1989
binding: paperback
language: Italian
isbn 88775701103
€18,08
“What is the soul, and to what extent, under what conditions, does psychoanalysis force us to think differently about it? What is language and how can we talk about it? What is the mathematical, physical, biological, socio-historical object, and how does it reveal and at the same time hide itself from the extraordinary enterprise that is modern science? From what and through what can we talk about economics, equality, justice, politics? An unrestrained, gratuitous and compulsory ambition: to clarify the strange fact of knowledge, to explore its current situation, to search for meanings that go beyond it”. Cornelius Castoriadis (1922) has lived in France since 1945. He co-founded the journal Socialisme ou Barbarie and was its main animator. He has published numerous works on social analysis and political philosophy. -
A torto e a ragione. Intercritica tra scienza e mito
pages: 281
format: 19 x 28 cm
date of publication: March 1989
binding: paperback
language: Italian
isbn 88877570121
€20,66
“The aim of this work is to show that there are different rationalities, different ways of being ‘right’, all of them legitimate though different, in the manner in which they account for the data of our senses”. This is how the author introduces his dissertation on the territories of reason, the subject of this volume. Henri Atlan, a doctor and biologist born in Algeria in 1931, currently teaches at the Universities of Paris and Jerusalem. He is the author of numerous studies on cell biology, biophysics and artificial intelligence. His formal theory of self-organisation has inspired fruitful intellectual explorations in various disciplines. In Italy he is known for his essay Tra il cristallo e il fumo, published by hopefulmonster in 1987. -
Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze
pages: 288
format: 24 x 24 cm
date of publication: March 1988
binding: paperback
images: 188
language: Italian
isbn 98877570083
€20,66
“Just as we saw a moment ago, even before opening it, this volume offered a shape and a colour: a green square immediately evokes a gaming table and it is here that I am now going to arrange the various and changing faces of a solitaire”. Giulio Paolini, author of this artist’s book, guides the reader through his works from the beginning, introducing him to a more “strictly personal” knowledge of his enigmatic work. In addition to a rich bibliography, the book includes historical texts by the artist and others that have never been published before.