‘When the eyes are closed, they are extraordinarily open.’ So goes one of the guiding maxims of late Italian artist Marisa Merz, whose enigmatic and deeply personal body of work draws strength from its evocation of interiority, of memory and dreams.
This inward, unassuming approach to both her work and career partially explains why, for most of her life, Merz was never subject to the level of attention garnered by her husband Mario, and also why she never sought it. Merz’s elusive legacy (all her works are untitled and rarely dated), together with her raison d'être of pursuing life’s most fragile, transient details, come together in enchanting fashion at Lille’s LaM, for her first retrospective in France for 30 years (‘Marisa Merz, Listen to the Space’, at LaM until 22 September 2024).
