Opening the Can: Boîte ou­ver­te de Pie­ro Man­zo­ni

Bernard Bazile, “Boîte ou­ver­te de Pie­ro Man­zo­ni” (Photo via: Xavier Hufkens Gallery)

In 2008, box vox featured Piero Manzoni’s 1961 artwork, entitled Merda d’artista (“Artist’s Shit”) — a limited edition multiple of 90 labeled cans.

In the earlier post (“Packaging Waste”) I was mainly focused on the cans and their contents, but there were things I hadn’t known about Manzoni’s famous canned goods…

For one thing, I hadn’t realized that they functioned as a literal retort in a rhetorical dialogue with his father…

Supposedly, he made this work in response to a taunt from his father: “Your work is shit.” Since his father ran a factory that produced canned meats, Manzoni, in effect, paid him back in kind.

–John Miller, “Excremental value”

I always figured that the cans really did contain what was claimed on the label.

Photo by Wolfgang Thaler

Not everyone, however, accepted Manzoni’s labeling at face value. Some say that the cans actually contain something more innocuous…

In recent decades, many have been wondering what the can actually contains. Certainly not the organic matter declared. If so, sooner or later, the metal will corrode causing a spill. I can safely say that this is just chalk. Does anyone want to check? Go ahead. I am not going to bother.

Bonalumi Augustine, 2007

I also didn’t know that one of these cans had actually been opened.

Ber­nard Ba­zi­le did exactly that in his 1989 artwork, entitled: Boîte ou­ver­te de Pie­ro Man­zo­ni (Opened can of Piero Manzoni)…

By ope­ning one of the tins in 1989, Ba­zi­le de­cla­red the ra­di­ca­li­ty ge­stu­re of the avant-​gar­des a failu­re that ul­ti­mate­ly led to the pro­duc­tion of ever new com­mo­di­ties and so­ci­al dif­fe­ren­ces (Boîte ou­ver­te de Pie­ro Man­zo­ni). His la­ter vi­deo in­stal­la­ti­on Ein Maß für alle (2004) portrays ow­ners of the Man­zo­ni tins, hence an ent­i­re art sys­tem ba­sed on the fe­tis­hiza­ti­on of the work.

–Kolja Reichert

What precisely was inside? A “smaller can, also labeled merda di artista.”

A can within a can. What’s inside this smaller can? It would appear that no one really knows since Bazile did not open the inner can. It could well be that Manzoni’s 1961 excrement is contained within the “inner pack.” Perhaps that question will be settled in some future artwork.

Meanwhile, the FDA takes a dim view of packaging that does not actually contain what the label says. But even if the inner can does contain 30 grams of fecal matter, it might still be deemed a deceptive package, since the cans themselves were originally sold on the basis of its weight.

For the definitive essay on Piero Manzoni’s Merda d’artista, see John Miller’s “Excremental value.”

(A video and one more photo, after the fold…)

(Photo via: Xavier Hufkens Gallery)