Manuel Mérida: Installation - Proposition - Installation

Espace Meyer Zafra is pleased to present Installation - Proposition - Installation, the fifth solo exhibition by French-Venezuelan artist Manuel Mérida, a major figure in South American contemporary abstraction. From May 15 to June 19, 2025, the exhibition will feature projects, installations, and a monumental model.

“Unlike Soto or Cruz-Diez, Mérida was not interested in the process of dematerialization or optical illusions based on the interaction of light and vibrations; rather, he was keen to work with concrete and tangible elements and, above all, wished to emphasize their materiality. In this context, his work in advertising and as a set designer proved to be a significant investment in his career, as they provided the artist with a comprehensive new set of technical and practical skills, a deep understanding of materials, mechanics, and, above all, a deeply rooted sense of space and architecture, which would remain key to Mérida’s large-scale installations to this day.” - Valentina Locatelli

Manuel Mérida, a French-Venezuelan artist born in 1939, settled in Paris in the 1980s. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Valencia, Venezuela, he became one of the leading representatives of his country’s “informalist” and “gestural art” movements. He worked in the studio of Carlos Cruz Diez and simultaneously worked as a theater set designer, a film set designer, and an advertising designer for Christian Dior, Guerlain, Cartier, Chanel, and others.

Far from limiting himself to his famous monochrome circular works, Manuel Mérida has chosen to present the exhibition Installation - Proposition - Installation, including four new installations, conceived by Manuel Mérida in his studio in 2024 and 2025. These monumental pieces, created as immersive environments, extend his explorations of time, matter, and formal instability. White Circle Installation, Usuyuki, Bermuda Blue Installation, and Cubic Yellow Installation are presented alongside a collection of photographs and videos by French artist Joël Laiter.

At the center of this exhibition is the model entitled Usuyuki Chantier - Place Igor Sravinsky / Centre Pompidou. For several years, artist Manuel Mérida has wanted to occupy Place Igor Stravinsky, a stone’s throw from the Centre Pompidou, with a monumental installation inspired by his Usuyuki series, begun in 1988. While the Centre Pompidou will be closing its doors for five years of renovations, this project, conceived in 2015, involves bringing art out of its walls and placing it back in the heart of the city. Conceived as a democratic gesture, this ephemeral work is a continuation of the street art works that already define the identity of the place, without ever altering them. By opening this space to other artists, it invites a collective reflection on the place of art in our cities. Usuyuki Stravinsky would thus become a bridge between urban memory, contemporary creation, and civic sharing.

Whether in these installations or in this monumental model, the exhibition is rooted in a reflection on place and duration: several works are conceived as temporary installations, destined to disappear. Mérida questions the possibility of an ephemeral art, but one that is all the more charged with presence. These unstable forms, often activated by motors or natural elements, create a field where the work is also the event of its own disappearance.

By excluding any desire to present his paintings on a blank wall (as is done in a museum or art gallery), Mérida reveals a lesser-known side: that of a creator who sees the exhibition space as a terrain of sensory experience, but also as a way of opening abstraction to new contemporary dialogues—with the living, memory, and architecture.