Page 44 - Studio International - September October 1975

take into account a particular spatial
design, in a private environment such as
a house or studio the artist is free to alter
the shape and layout of the rooms. If he is
working on his own premises, then the
changes can be more extensive and more
personal. In 1924 Schwitters began to
construct within his house in Hanover
the Kathedrale des Erotischen Elends
(Cathedral of Erotic Misery), or
Merzbau. In it he used various objects
and materials to project his own life
history, which was identified through
emotional and libidinous reactions and
fantasies. The work was determined by a
series of private meanings and the
`cathedral' grew organically in time.
It was an environment laden with
`fetishes' which were full of personal
mementos. Schwitters regarded his
house as a large box and filled it with
`signs' which he collected every day. It
was an immense collage, ever-expanding
and swallowing up space after space.
Unlike the fields mentioned previously,
this 'cathedral' was invested only with
private meanings, as though Schwitters
could see no outlet for his work if it were
put at the disposal of others. He used his
freedom to produce what was really an
incommensurable work, in time and in
space. The cathedral or Merzbau could
in fact be expanded in an historical
sense, and Schwitters went on arranging
it, in different places, from 1924 to 1947.
By excluding the possibility of a
public-social function, of a permanent
site and of an enclosed plastic-visual
definition, the Merzbau departs from the
methods followed in static environmental
art. The field has become mobile and can
be adapted to other spaces; it undergoes
continual transformation and continual
transplanting. It allows for a freer, more
cerebral environmental activity. There
is not only the given space but also
possible space. Marcel Duchamp Door, II Rue Larrey (Paris) 1927
This possible space may be found Wooden door made to Duchamp's specifications, 86 5/8 x 24 11/16 in.
on any occasion: it does not have to be Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf
arranged in advance and it may be of
an accidental, ephemeral nature. An art surface and segment, cube, sphere and continuity between space and pictures.
gallery becomes a possible field. For black, grey and wood and surfaces that The surface of the pictures merges into
the big Berlin Exhibition of 1923 are painted flat on the wall (colour), and the support 'surface. The entire room
Lissitzky designed the Proun Room. The surfaces that are placed vertically against thus becomes a constructivist work. It is
environment was 'shaped with the wall." in fact impossible to split the optical-
elementary forms and materials : line, The basic idea is the search for plastic whole: the rectangles and squares
of colour on the walls are integrated
perpendicularly or diagonally with the
reliefs and thin wooden parallelepipeds
which, starting on one wall, turn the
corner and continue on the next. At the
same time the ceiling and floor (the latter
designed but never executed) are part of
the environmental complex, receiving
the same chromatic and plastic treatment.
In general terms it can be said that the
Proun Room, in avoiding any kind of
symbolizing tendency or individual
characterization, belongs to a functional
category of works, in which the nature
and position of each element is precisely
thought-out. In 1925-26 we find the
same role recognizable in the
environmental adaptation of Casa
Zampini at Esanatoglia, by Ivo
Pannaggi9, and in Mondrian's Salon
of Madame B.10 In both cases space is
given chromatic and structural
El Lissitzky Proun Room. November Group's Art Exhibition, Berlin 1923. treatment. In the Zampini house,
Lithograph from the first Kestner Portfolio 1925-26, Pannaggi9 managed to bend
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