The exhibition is based on the 1985 show of all 12 of Merz’s igloo works of the time at the Kunsthaus in Zürich, organised by the pioneering curator Harald Szeemann. It was “a kind of city of igloos”, Todolí says, or what Merz called a “Città irreale” (“unreal” or “fanciful” city). Organised chronologically, the HangarBicocca show includes works from 1968 to 2003, including his 1980s works that demonstrate how his igloos became increasingly complex in this decade. The Igloo del Palacio de las Alhajas (1982), on loan from the Reina Sofia in Madrid, for instance, made up of crystal, iron, quartz, slate, sand and heather branches, is a transparent double igloo that plays on the contrast of natural and human-made elements. Exhibition view of Mario Merz's show at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1985. Courtesy Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2011.M.30). Photo: Balthasar Burkhardt