Turin-based Fondazione Merz has launched a new project space, titled ZACentrale, in Palermo’s Zisa Zona Arti Contemporanee (ZAC), a factory that is part of the city’s cultural district known as Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa. The 1,560 sqm space will be managed by Fondazione Merz, with a proposed programme of exhibitions, theatre, dance and concerts, as well as other cultural and educational activities. The project will also install a new library for the arts, TALEA Library, which will be made publicly accessible. Fondazione Merz is also partnering with Turin art fair Artissima to sponsor a new international artist residency prize (for research into young Mediterranean artists) that will take place at ZACentrale.
The inaugural exhibition, L’altro, lo stesso (The Other, the Same), at ZACentrale is a group show including works by Lida Abdul, Lawrence Weiner, Alfredo Jaar, Joan Jonas, Rosa Barba, Emily Jacir, Silvia Maglioni and Graeme Thomson, Marisa Merz and Mario Merz, alongside which will feature new commissions by artists based in Palermo. ZACentrale’s ongoing programme will focus on themes surrounding ‘the environment and the role that mankind plays in it as an agent of transformation’, with a view to supporting responsible and sustainable practices in cultural production.
