Seifenblasende Kuh (Soap Blowing Cow)

With its complex interaction of materials and techniques, Seifenblasende Kuh (Soap blowing Cow) witnesses Mario Merz’s restless formal experimentation within the Arte Povera movement. In the present work, everyday objects are modified and rearranged by the artist in order to unveil the energy implicit in their juxtaposition. A luminous vibration runs through the neon tube, establishing a dialogue between the two pieces of fabric that enhances their tactile quality. The poetry resulting from the interaction between raw and manufactured materials has always been at the core of Merz’s practice and testifies to the artist’s interest in the relationship between nature and culture. In this sense, the cow drawn in the right panel seems to be infused with an uncanny humanisation through the neon light stretching from the black left panel. Merz, talking about his animals, once explained, ‘I have drawn animals as though they were a kind of dream of something which is no longer there, and I have also drawn them in order to say that we have been made with fingers, fingernails and legs etc., and that we have still not completely become cybernetic machines. … Sometimes I feel more like an animal, and sometimes I feel less like one, but the animal is always there, always present. It’s a bit like in Kafka where the hero wakes up in the morning and finds himself turned into a large beetle. On the one hand he’s no longer himself, because he’s now a beetle, but he’s conscious of it. With all due respect for Kafka, my problem is much the same…’ (M. Merz, quoted, in translation, in D. Soutif, ‘Mario Merz, l’igloo et le glouglou’, in Libération, 22 July 1987, p. 24).