Marisa Merz

The interconnection between art and life is likewise evident in the objects knitted from copper or nylon thread that Marisa Merz made to the measurements of her own body, in this case a shoe, a personal object referring to the domestic realm. By combining nylon, an industrial material emblematic of the post-war period, with the conventional technique of knitting, it connects the familiar with the artistic, the industrial with the artisanal, the modern with the traditional.

Merz had shown the Scarpette (Small shoes) on various occasions. She combined the shoes with sculptures, installed them exhibitions or actions. During an action at l’Attico gallery she wore them as an extension of her own body. The modest and precarious Scarpette are situated at the interface between performance and life. She said of clothing and other tailormade works that they equally correspond to ‘her own measurements’ as well as to ‘her own possibilities’.