The new project originating from the collaboration between the Fondazione Merz in Torino and the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice involves the exchange of some artworks by artists Luisa Rabbia and Mona Hatoum, respectively on exhibition at the two Foundations.

The work by Mona Hatoum, Natura morta (Still Life) consists of a series of beautifully crafted and colourful Murano glass objects that closely resemble the appearance of hand grenades. The idea of using this particular seductive mirrored glass in the form of hand grenades, shapes that ambiguously recall the lethal weapons, but also sensuous fruit – Pommes et granades was in fact the working title of the first glass samples – was inspired by the colourful shapes and the different glassmaking techniques observed in Murano.

Among the works showcased at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia Mona Hatoum had already presented her re-interpretation of the techniques and tradition of Murano glass-masters, with her colourful mirrored glass objects set in the unusually reverent context of the museum; at the Fondazione Merz the same objects will be displayed on Mario Merz’s spiral shaped glass table, Doppia Spirale (Double Spiral), thus taking on a different feel and a new and particular dimension. Poised on that spiral, which the artist perceived as representing a vortex, the grenades/fruits seem to be endlessly multiplying; only the memory of the convivial and physical connotation of Merz’s tables can defuse and overturn the sense of displacement suggested by the spiral into the anchoring feeling of hospitality and sharing, more commonly associated with the idea of a table.