Manuel Mérida: Rétroviseur

For nearly fifty years, Manuel Mérida has developed a unique technique on the many possibilities matter may offer. From February 6 through March 27, 2021, Rétroviseur is meant to be a retrospective show. On this occasion, the artist’s first catalog raisonné will be published by Espace Meyer Zafra with texts by Matthieu Poirier, Art Historian and exhibition curator specializing in kinetic art, and Valentina Locatelli, Art Historian and South American Art specialist.

 

Painter, decorator, advertising designer and scenographer, Manuel Mérida, was born in November 25, 1939 in Valencia, Venezuela and was trained at the Arturo Michelena School of Plastic Arts in his hometown under the aegis of painting professor Braulio Salazar, a key figure in the career of Mérida.

 

Considered as an informal painter in his early days in the 1960s, his work was recognized in his country of origin but his desire to further experiment pushed him to leave Caracas for Paris in 1968. His entire work was born from his journey there. Upon his arrival in Paris, Manuel Mérida joined Carlos Cruz-Diez’s studio. While working for the Venezuelan master, Mérida is in total experimentation, not knowing what he is looking for. Multiple discussions with Cruz-Diez and his take on kinetic art allow him to understand the founding principles of kinetics and in particular to perceive the importance such movement could take in his work. 

However, as Valentina Locatelli points out: “Unlike Soto or Cruz-Diez, Mérida is not interested in the process of dematerialization nor in optical illusions based on the interaction of light and vibrations; he’d rather work with concrete and tangible elements to above all stress their materiality. In this context, his works in advertising as well as set designer ended up becoming an important investment in his career as they provided the artist with a complete new set of technical and practical skills, in-depth knowledge of materials, mechanics and, above all, a deep-rooted sense of space and architecture, which would become the key to Mérida’s large-scale installations to this day”. On the occasion of the upcoming Rétroviseur, Manuel Mérida will present a new monumental installation to emphasize the importance of decor in his work.

 

In Paris, Manuel Mérida meets many artists with whom he will forge strong friendships such as Sergio Camargo, Carlos Cruz-Diez or even Lygia Clark (for whom he will realize two “Bichos”). By interacting with Clark in particular, he perceives an experimentation which seems essential to him in the Art world: the viewer’s sensory perception, a central element in his work. Within the exhibition, the viewer will be able to participate in the artist’s creative process by manually manipulating circular boxes dating from the 1980s and 1990s, filled with matter such as pigments, colored cut papers, wood, sand, rusty metal, confetti, construction or even debris.

 

From the 1970s, Mérida has used various non-traditional materials, but unlike the materialists, he tended to break free from canvas and inserted these materials into plexiglass boxes. He first realized his square shape works such as Crashel and Cajas Manipulables series, exhibited in 1973 at the Sala Mendoza Foundation in Caracas. From that moment on, Mérida got closer to kinetics by using movement as a decisive element in his work. Through his art, he wishes to avoid offering a still and unique vision, playing with variations of the material. Rétroviseur retrospective will bring the viewer the ability to fully appreciate this first square shape experience through the piece Carré Écolier.

 

As Pontus Hulten said in his text Movement-Time or the four dimensions of kinetic plastic: “Movement is a spark of life that makes Art human and truly realistic. A work of art endowed with a kinetic rhythm that never repeats itself is one of the freest beings imaginable.” In his early days, Mérida realizes that the kinetic rhythm of the square shape is not optimal. According to him, this form is too prominent which as a result leaves the matter, the central element of his work, too much in the background. From there, the circular shape will gradually impose itself in order to place the material in the foreground. Within the exhibition, the viewer will be able to see this existing confrontation between the square and circular works of Manuel Mérida.

 

Made of various shapes, sizes and contents, the pieces showcased in Rétroviseur are animated by the viewer’s hand just like the work of Peinture Cinétique. As for the ones activated by a motor, they move slowly such as Orange Circle Signalisation. Manuel Mérida uses the potentialities of odds to create a work in perpetual transformation.

 

Thus, the viewer’s experience is at the center of this exhibition. Whether it be by manual activation or by the action of a motor, the viewer is invited to fully participate in Merida’s hypnotizing work.