"Schwitters' built his constructions into his residences incorporating rooms he lived in into the structure. The ceilings and walls were covered with three dimensional shapes and countless nooks and grottos were filed with a variety of objects -- "spoils and relics" (personal items Schwitters stole from friends and acquaintances). These nooks and grottos were sometimes obliterated by future additions, leaving them existing only in the memories of the earlier versions of the work. Schwitters considered the Merzbau on principle, an uncompleted work that by it's very nature, continued to grow and change constantly."
Schwitters constructed columns in the space.
"Merz - A nonsense word invented by the German Dada artist Kurt Schwitters to describe his collage and assemblage works based on scavenged scrap materials. He made large numbers of small collages, and more substantial assemblages, in this medium. He is said to have extracted the word Merz from the name Commerz Bank which appeared on a piece of paper in one of his collages. Schwitters founded a Dada group in Hanover where he was based from 1919. There he created his first Merzbau (Merz building)."
1980's - Reconstruction of Merzbau at Tate Modern. Link to the
Tate Modern for more.
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