The Foundation Merz prepares to celebrate its fourth birthday by publishing the quaderni, a series of slim volumes aiming to provide the public with the latest news regarding all the activities promoted by the Turin-based institute. Each issue takes its cue from a particularly important event – which it intends to document through images better and more numerous than in any eventual catalogue – in order to reconstruct the entire season of which it was part, testifying to the subtle narratives adopted by the evolution of art.

This first issue is dedicated to Sol Lewitt, the great American artist, exponent of minimalism and conceptual art, famous throughout the world for his Wall Paintings. These publications reflect an uninterrupted dialogue with Mario Merz, with his works preserved and presented by the foundation and with his writings, of which each issue of i quaderni presents a previously unpublished selection. Each issue of i quaderni is rounded off by a section of critical texts, with lists of the works on display, and a chronology that gives a synopsis of the complex itinerary – full of performances, readings, educational activities and conferences – planned by the scientific committee which, along with the president, Beatrice Merz, includes Richard Flood (The New Museum, New York), Dieter Schwarz (Kunstmuseum, Winthertur) and Vicente Todolí (Tate Modern, London).

The second instalment of the Fondazione Merz’s i quaderni series is dedicated to the major Mario Merz exhibition held last year, which presented the public with the largest selection of drawings by the great master, some of which had never been on public display before.

The series consists of slim volumes that keep the public up to date on all the activities promoted by the Turin institute. Each issue takes its cue from a particularly important event – which the Fondazione documents through images in greater numbers and detail than does a catalogue – to reconstruct the entire season of which it was part, testifying to the subtle narrative followed by the evolution of art. These publications reflect an uninterrupted dialogue with Mario Merz, with his works preserved and presented by the foundation and with his writings, of which each issue of i quaderni presents a previously unpublished selection. Each issue of i quaderni is rounded off by a section of critical texts, with lists of the works on display, and a chronology that gives a synopsis of the complex itinerary – full of performances, readings, educational activities and conferences – planned by the scientific committee which, along with the president, Beatrice Merz, includes Richard Flood (The New Museum, New York), Dieter Schwarz (Kunstmuseum, Winthertur) and Vicente Todolí (Tate Modern, London).

This volume, published with the support of the Piedmont Region, is a tribute to the forty years of activity of Luciano Pistoi (1927-1995), art critic, cultural promoter and organiser, and one of the most important and influential gallery owners in Italy. His career developed between Turin, Rome and Castello di Volpaia, where he was quick to present emerging international artists, chosen counter to prevailing opinion with great passion and intuition. This led to the formation of a fine collection and the renewal of the contemporary artistic environment. Born into a Tuscan family, he came to Turin at a very young age and in the 1950s wrote as an art critic for “L’Unità”. In 1957 he opened the Galleria Notizie with an exhibition by Wols and continued by presenting the works of Fautrier, Pollock, Burri, Fontana, Dubuffet, Mathieu, Tobey, Spazzapan, Imai, Tàpies, Accardi, Gallizio, Twombly, Jorn, Shiraga, Riopelle, Francis, Nevelson and other protagonists of the informal movement. He organised extraordinary exhibitions in Turin, including, in collaboration with Michel Tapié, the first exhibition in Europe of the Japanese Gutai group in 1959 and in the same year, again with the French critic, the international Arte Nuova exhibition at the Circolo degli Artisti. In addition to Tapié, he worked with the most active and committed art critics of the time: Enrico Crispolti, Carla Lonzi, Maurizio Fagiolo and Giuliano Briganti.

The book is published on the occasione of the exhibition already 39 years on this planet held at Centro Arti Visive Pescheria in Pesaro from 12 April to 25 May 2008.

From its foundation the Centro Arti Visive Pescheria has demonstrated a distinct vocation for contemporary sculpture represented by great international figures such as Giuseppe Penone, Tony Cragg and Jan Vercruysse coupled with younger artists such as Francesco Gennari. Today the Pescheria presents Gianni Caravaggio’s first retrospective exhibition in the former Suffragio church, including a selection of work inspired by cosmogonic and astrophyisic visions. Caravaggio provides an idea of sculpture from a conceptual matrix with a playful character that finds familiarity within the ontological and metaphysical line of Italian art rooted in Lucio Fontana’s Spatialism and the work of Piero Manzoni and Luciano Fabro.

Caravaggio projects this vision into the current artistic panorama with a unique understanding, a vision that is fittingly presented in a space dedicated to the research of contemporary Italian artists.

The book contains contributions by the artist himself, Giorgio Verzotti and Martin Bojowald. It also includes an interview edited by Ludovico Pratesi.

The book is published on the occasion of the exhibition Lo spazio dell’uomo  (The space of man ) held at the Fondazione Merz (Turin) from 24 January to 11 May 2008. The exhibition is realised in agreement and with the support of the Regione Piemonte, with the contribution of the DIRAC (Ministero de Relaciones Exteriores), the patronage of the IILA (Istituto Italo-Latino Americano) and in collaboration with the Fundación Allende.

As the point of departure, the Fondazione Merz has chosen to present, for the first time in Europe, the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (Salvador Allende Museum of Solidarity) with a selection of 29 works from their collection of international art, and then to offer a look at current artistic production, represented here by the works of six young Chilean artists.

The PAV, Parco d’Arte Vivente (Park of Living Art), owned by the City of Turin, was conceived in 2002 from an idea of the Park of Living Art Cultural Association, which subsequently developed it together with the Councillorship for the Resources and the Culture Development of Turin. A first section of the PAV is currently open and functional, inspired by the marriage of art and nature. The PAV is located in Turin and the completion of the project is expected by the end of 2007. The leading concept of the PAV is of an "interactive museum in nature". The PAV urban planning is based on the most advanced standards of biocompatible architecture and landscape architecture.

The Artistic Direction Committee, coordinated by Ivana Mulatero, includes the French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud. The PAV team includes a group of cultural operators engaged in all the institutional activities and especially in the Creative Research Section, coordinated by Tea Taramino.