Numerous contemporary artists who have decided to make performative art. An example of this is the work of Marina Abramovic but also of Piero Manzoni, who argues that the symbolic value of a work is given by the relationship with the artist’s body.
Who was Piero Manzoni
Piero Manzoni (Soncino, 13 July 1933 – Milan, 6 February 1963) was an Italian artist. He was born in the province of Cremona but soon moved to Milan where he lives with his four brothers and parents. Lives a comfortable childhood as his father, Count Egisto Manzoni, is part of the family that owns the Filanda Meroni company, known in the textile sector.
He attended the classical high school at the Jesuits of the Liceo Leone XIII and then later enrolled at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart where he attended the Faculty of Law. In these years he discovers the avant-garde environment that involves artists such as Lucio Fontana, especially remembered for his cuts on canvas. In this context he begins to paint portraits and landscapes according to the classic oil technique.
Piero Manzoni and the beginning of artistic production
Over the years he deepened more and more the world of art to the point of publishing in 1956 the manifest “For the discovery of an area of images” in which he begins to lay the foundations of his thought. The following year follows the manifesto “For an organic painting” and then realizes the “Manifesto against style” together with artists of the Nuclear Group.
After sharing his thoughts, he begins to make the well-known series of paintings without color entitled “Achromes”. These more rough works precede a change of style that involves the use of lighter canvases suitable for plaster. The first known exhibitions and friendships in the sector begin for him, leading him to obtain moderate success in theEuropean artistic environment.
Around the sixties he began to frequent artists such as Agostino Bonalumi and Enrico Castellani, co-founder with him of the “Azimuth” magazine. In the same period he meets the “ZERO Group” of the German city of Dusseldorf with which he produces the famous ones “Air bodies”. He continues his work in this direction, dedicating himself at the same time to the practical and theoretical aspects with his work for the magazine.
The international success of Piero Manzoni
Among his best known works he remembers “Consuming art, audience dynamics, devouring art”, an artistic performance presented at the Azimut gallery on 21 July 1960. The invitation to the event presents the idea of wanting to involve the viewer who is called to consume the works exhibited by Manzoni, like boiled eggs signed with his footprint. He follows the same principle the following year when he realizes the “Magic Bases”, pedestals on which the viewer must climb to become a work of art himself.
To this project is added another masterpiece that today is associated with the name of Mazoni: “Artist’s shit”. Make 90 tin cans marked with a label bearing the title of the work. The artist wants provoke the viewer who will never know the content of these if not opening them and therefore destroying the work. Influenced by the production of artists such as Marcel Duchamp predicts different symbolic readings for his projects which are always partially understandable if there is no in-depth analysis.
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