This volume presents the second edition of PUSH THE LIMITS, an exhibition project by Fondazione Merz curated by Claudia Gioia and Beatrice Merz. The exhibition explores art's ability to respond to current and urgent issues and to bring about change, rejecting resignation to immobility. It brings together 20 artists from different generations and backgrounds who make the overcoming and transformation of imposed and supposed limits their artistic grammar.
In renaming the second edition of PUSH THE LIMITS, Mario Merz's phrase, “Culture strips itself bare and reveals war”, has been added. The reference is to the traditionally complex role of culture in situations of conflict and the need for culture to strip itself of its muffled image in order to highlight its combative nature. This also serves to emphasise the freedom and responsibility of art and culture, as well as the goal of pushing boundaries, especially today, when all the principles of coexistence and law are constantly being overturned, so that new words can emerge to start thinking again in terms of justice and international, social and civil relations.
The exhibition, open from 27 October 2025 to 8 March 2026, features works by the following artists: Heba Y. Amin, Maja Bajević, Mirna Bamieh, Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Rossella Biscotti, Monica Bonvicini, Latifa Echakhch, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh/Rozenn Quéré, Cécile B. Evans, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Mona Hatoum, Emily Jacir, Jasleen Kaur, Katerina Kovaleva, Teresa Margolles, Helina Metaferia, Janis Rafa, Zineb Sedira and Nora Turato.