The catalogue is published on the occasion of the exhibition Massimo Bartolini. Four Organs held at Fondazione Merz from 3 July to 1 October 2017.

“It’s the first time that works planned individually are presented together and play together, like in a concert. There is a polyphony. The instruments of this quartet are four organs, called Otra Fiesta from a poem by Roberto Juarroz, Voyelles from a poem by Arthur Rimbaud, In a Landscape from a piece by John Cage and Three Quarter-tone Pieces from a piece by Charles Ives. Maracas, instead, comes along with the title of the Four Organs exhibition. I had been listening to a lot of Steve Reich for some time. There is a very good record (Four Organs): it seemed like a suggestion that I could not allow to go by. So I extrapolated Reich’s title. […] For me the organ has this pathetic component of tending towards something that cannot be reached, and that this is its purpose. So the innocent tubes tend upwards like the organ’s music, and once the supply of this air has been effected and the resonance produced, or the edifice constructed, both music and scaffolding disappear into nothingness.

This forced geometric building with scaffolding, and the more mathematical and aerial one of music, are two ways of covering an extension. That’s why I came to associate them.here at the Fondazione Merz, the interaction of the viewers consists in their moving within the space and thus perceiving ever-different acoustic relationships.” (Massimo Bartolini)

The catalogue reproduces the photographic documentation of the exhibition at the Fondazione Merz and a selection of Bartolini‘s works from 1989 al 2016. A conversation between the artist and Luca Cerizza enriches the site specific installation at the Fondazione Merz.