HOW DO WE RECONCILE our own desires with those of others? Mario Merz (1925–2003) persistently used his art to probe the counterpoint between individuals and society that is at the heart of modern democracy. The Italian artist’s decades-long engagement with constructions that simultaneously recall shelters and the globe is the clearest manifestation of this concern. Since last fall, more than thirty of what Merz called his “igloos” have been assembled in the cavernous industrial space of Milan’s Pirelli Hangar Bicocca. On a scale never achieved in his lifetime, this installation maps his vision

Its windows covered with red film, the gallery emitted a luminous glow, but this was no disco. Entering, viewers were enveloped by a dense fog that forced them to move about cautiously, drawn to a red neon sign that covered the entire back wall, its letters very far apart, elongated like falling teardrops and nearly illegible. The words had to be reconstructed one by one so that their meaning could be felt in all its painful effect: WHAT NEED IS THERE TO WEEP OVER PARTS OF LIFE? THE WHOLE OF IT CALLS FOR TEARS. This is also the title of this 2018 work, taken from the letter of consolation written

This high-intensity presentation of Simone Forti’s multifaceted work established a dialogue between different creative moments and expressive typologies in the oeuvre of this extraordinary Italian-American artist, choreographer, dancer, and writer. Beginning in the 1960s under the inspiration of her then mentor, Anna Halprin, Forti was among the pioneers of artistic investigations based on an awareness of the body as a medium for movement, an identification with elementary phenomena of sound and rhythm, and the potential for expressive freedom offered by unconventional actions. The broader