Available on line MANFREDI EDIZIONI / In Paris @ boutique du Centre Georges Pompidou / soon in New York @Printed Matters St Marks
author of photographs and texts: Susanna Pozzoli
title: Un'estate con Meret Oppenheim
publisher: Manfredi Edizioni
a project realized thanks VAF Stiftung: first book of the editorial series "Collana Giovani autori alla soglia del nuovo millenio"
essay by: Barbara Stehle
interview to S. Pozzoli by: Volker W. Feierabend
Editorial project by Susanna Pozzoli; graphic realization by Stéfani de Loppinot
size: 24 x 28 cm
pages: 212
Sewn Binding, Hard Cover
languages: Italian, French, English
EU ISBN: 979-12-80049-13-1
printed in Italy, October 2021
Through her photographs and texts Susanna Pozzoli invites the reader to discover Casa Costanza the house-total work of art by the artist Meret Oppenheim. The book is an homage to this outstanding woman and artist by a contemporary photographer and author.
Since her childhood, Meret Oppenheim has been fond Casa Costanza, her maternal grandparents’ vacation home in the little town of Carona, near Lugano in Switzerland. The couple hosted family and friends including a long list of intellectuals and artists. The Wenger-Oppenheim had to take refuge there during WWII and in the following years the family always reunite in Carona. In 1967-68 Meret Oppenheim made of this ancient house a work of art: after guiding the innovative restoration, she disposed all kind of objects and artworks. Since then, the house remained exactly the same and it is still inhabited by family members, fully committed to this legacy.
Pozzoli photographs with her unique eye objets and details of this place with the intention of re-evoking Meret O.’s presence and she proposes a personal approach to the testimonies she collected. The interviews are edited as a "cadavre exquis": while collected over several years they result in a unique dialogue mixing all voices. She interviewed family members including Lisa Wenger (Meret's niece), Lisa’s mother Birgit Wenger and her brother Michael Wenger. The architect Aurelio Galfetti, working for Meret during the restoration as well as Bice Curiger and Jacqueline Burckhardt who collaborated with Meret and were close friends, are sharing their memories.
Art historian Barbara Stehle’s essay analyzes Pozzoli's artistic process underlying the link between the two female artists. An interview to the author by Volker W. Feierabend tells us the story of this long-lasting project. Feierabend is the director of VAF Stiftung a German foundation supporting Italian contemporary artists which published this book as the first of a new series by Manfredi (IT).