Corpo d'aria
Encyclopedia
Piero Manzoni
Piero Manzoni was an Italian artist best known for his ironic conceptual art. Influenced by the work of Yves Klein, his own work anticipated, and directly influenced, the work of a generation of younger Italian artists brought together by the critic Germano Celant in the first Arte Povera...
. Manufactured between October 1959 and March 1960, the pieces comprise of a box, a tripod base, deflated balloon and a mouthpiece. 45 copies were made and sold at 30,000 lire
Italian lira
The lira was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. Between 1999 and 2002, the Italian lira was officially a “national subunit” of the euro...
each. Originally, any buyer could ask Manzoni to inflate the balloon himself, but would be charged an extra Deutschmark for every litre of air expanded. When fully expanded, the balloons measured 80 cm in diameter.
Public presentation
The "Corpi d'aria" were first exhibited at the Galleria Azimut, run by Manzoni and his friend, the Italian artist Enrico Castellani, from May 3 to May 9 1960. Manzoni organised an elaborate photo shoot and a short film to publicise the event. He was to write later in the year that the bodies had sold well.By making a purely transient work, that would deflate before the buyer’s eyes, Manzoni was parodying the traditional sculptural emphasis on permanence and mocking the traditional emphasis on the artist’s creative force. He was also using modern materials to suggest an aggressively modern aesthetic whilst creating a poetic metaphor for the transience of life itself.
"Fiato d’artista"
Gesso
Gesso is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these...
. The pieces were made in 1960, and 11 examples are known to have survived, although all are now in an extreme state of decomposure. When exhibited now, the works inevitably assume the aura of a modern memento mori
Memento mori
Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die". It names a genre of artistic work which varies widely, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality...
, featuring a rotting plastic membrane stuck to a polished wooden base, with a brass plaque commemorating the original act.
Placentarium
The largest variation on the theme was a giant double-skinned "Placentarium", filled with compressed air to keep the balloon inflated. Manzoni designed especially for the projection of Otto PieneOtto Piene
Otto Piene is a German artist. He lives and works in Düsseldorf and Groton, Massachusetts.-Biography:...
's Light Ballets, but also referred to the building housing a giant maze, made up of 60 cells controlled by "an electric brain". Equipped with 73 alcoves for viewers, the "Placentarium" was intended to be silver on the outside and white internally. Designs and a photograph of a small architectural model survive.
Manzoni simultaneously planned a series of public sculptures, of balloons 2.5 m diameter, to be installed in parks. These were to be fitted with air compressor to slowly pulsate ‘with a slow unsynchronized rhythm of breathing.’ He never took this idea further than a small experimental version.
The final experiment was for a sphere held suspended by a jet of air. Again, this never advanced beyond a small experimental maquette
Maquette
A maquette is a small scale model or rough draft of an unfinished architectural work or a sculpture...
, but emphasises Manzoni’s conception of balloons representing freedom and weightlessness.
Influences
Manzoni is known to have been heavily influenced by Yves KleinYves Klein
Yves Klein was a French artist considered an important figure in post-war European art. He is the leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany...
, who had released 1001 blue balloons on the opening night of his "Proposition: Monochrome" exhibition at Iris Clert
Iris Clert
Iris Clert was the owner of the Galerie Iris Clert from 1955 to 1971. During its tenure, her gallery became an avant-garde hotspot in the international art scene, particularly to Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely and Arman....
’s gallery, 1957.
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
would later use balloons in a similar way, but filled with helium rather than suspended in a stream of compressed air. Indeed, his first balloon, made in 1965, corresponded to an unfulfilled project described by Manzoni in a letter as ‘a cluster of pneumatic cylinders, elongated in shape, like steel, which would vibrate in the blowing of the wind.’ Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
has used ping pong balls suspended in compressed air, but within the context of floating above a bed of sharp knives or a skeleton.
His most lasting influence, however, was on Arte Povera
Arte Povera
Arte Povera is a modern art movement. The term was introduced in Italy during the period of upheaval at the end of the 1960s, when artists were taking a radical stance. Artists began attacking the values of established institutions of government, industry, and culture, and even questioning whether...
, a group of Italian artists, including Luciano Fabro
Luciano Fabro
Luciano Fabro was an Italian artist associated with the Arte Povera movement.-Life:Born in Turin, Fabro moved to Milan in 1959, continuing to live and work there until his death....
and Alighiero e Boetti, who brought everyday materials into their work in a movement analogous to contemporary radical politics. (see Protests of 1968
Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...
).