Instagram story viewer> @merzbarn> Tagged

Merz Barn

@merzbarn

447

followers

468

following

Kurt Schwitters last Merzbau, Langdale Valley. Profile managed by @laingtateart & @catrionart

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

There’s something wonderfully nostalgic about looking back at the journey of WYRM (Gigantic Pile).
I first installed the work quietly in the woods of the Lake District, at the Merz Barn @merzbarn, in 2022 - a secluded place where almost nobody saw it. In person, it lay entangled amongst upturned tree roots, as though it had always belonged there.

There was something beautiful about that: the work existing quietly within the landscape, discovered by only a few. Made from lichened, weathered and rusty materials found on site, the sculpture seemed to grow organically from the ground. Many of its elements have travelled with me ever since, being dismantled, transformed and woven into new lives again and again. Inspired by the postindustrial landscape of the countryside, what we perceive as natural, has taken its toll on nature overtime, creating human made landscapes.

Then, in 2023, WYRM found its way to the Chelsea Flower Show with Saatchi Gallery @saatchi_gallery.

And now, three years later, it arrives at Frieze 2026 in Regent’s Park, London.

From a hidden clearing in the woods to one of the world’s great art fairs, its journey feels both unlikely and deeply special.

Frieze Sculpture will be revealed and open to the public from 16 September until 1 November 2026.

Huge thanks to Muse Gallery @muse_at_269 and @purlingltd for helping make this possible, and to @fatosustek for curating the project.

I’m very excited to see where the work meets its audience this time — burrowing its way out of the ground, through the urban strata, and into the English Gardens of Regent’s Park. @friezeofficial

A different landscape. A different audience.
But perhaps the same ancient creature, still finding its way through.

#FriezeLondon #Frieze2026 #FriezeSculpture #ContemporaryArt Sculpture

📸 @tell_your_story_walking

173

9

Merz Barn

#merzbarn #selfportrait #brazilian #art
#photography

3

1

Throwback to ‘Gigantic Pile’ at the Merz Barn in the Lake District 2022, @merzbarn 🪱 @as.old.as.the.hills @catrionart

As artist in residence at the Merz Barn I explored the landscape, walking the hills and mountains, learning about soil ecology and discovering residue of human activity. Abandoned quarry mines carved out of the mountains, trees cleared for cattle chewed landscapes and over trodden footpaths, an altered picture of what nature once was. There are hardly any truly ‘wild places’ anymore. The Merz Barn offered a refuge, a nature reserve allowed to grow wild again over what had once been a post-industrial landscape on Cylinders estate. Sharing these photos in anticipation of a residency I will take part in ‘this summer ‘As Old as the Hills’ exploring reconnection with nature. @as.old.as.the.hills

Living in the city I often feel both disconnected and connected to nature- we are surrounded by a synthetic environment as a human-made landscape. I see slippages as weeds and lichens grow around and back between the concrete cracks, moss spores latch onto bricks, tree roots undulate beneath the tarmac pavement, a persistent rewilding of the city. When I return to nature I reset my mind and my body, like plunging into cold water and resurfacing. ‘the experience of landscapes can give people a sense of bigness outside of themselves that has now somehow been lost’

Amazing photos by @tell_your_story_walking 📸 #artistresidency #asoldasthehills #landart #sculpture #merzbarn @zigzagglastonbury #artandenvironment #contemporaryart #wastematerials #sustainability #siteresponsive #installationart #sculpture #artincommunity
#communityartproject #contemporarysculpture #royalsculptors #catrionarobertson

157

4

I’m very pleased to share that my sculpture Gigantic Pile will be bursting out of the grounds at this years RHS Chelsea Flower Show in collaboration with @Saatchi_gallery and David Green Gardens 🪱🍀

A ghost wilderness hovers in wait of reclaiming the human made landscape as weeds and entangled roots undulate below, growing between the cracks of concrete foundations.

Opening 23rd May -27th May 2023

London Gate, Royal Hospital Road, Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London SW3 4SR

@The_rhs #isday #royalsocietyofsculptors
#saatchi_gallery #contemporarysculpture #weeds #earthworms #merzbarn @merzbarn

374

31

‘ If a tree falls in the forest’

#contemporarysculpture #sculpture #woodlands #concrete #metalsculpture

252

5

It’s the last week to see ‘Gigantic Pile’ buried in the woodland at the Merz Barn, after which their doors will be closed to the public. @merzbarn

This land is prone to scaring as traces of past human activity are unearthed.
Like much of the local area in the Lake District, Cylinders Estate has suffered significant storm damage. Trees uprooted overnight, torn out of the ground and enormous trunks snapped like spindly twigs.
Larch in the area have become diseased and the local council insisted that all those infected should be cut down. About 100 years ago, the forest was cleared for industrial activity and the production of gunpowder, and landscapes cleared for cattle and sheep farming over the years has left the earth exposed. Without the elder trees providing stable rooting and resilience to disease for younger trees, the nutrients in the soil have been altered, resulting in both the trees and earth becoming increasingly vulnerable. Erosion caused by agricultural activity, bare landscapes and the spraying of fertilisers to omit unwanted native plants has led to weakened soil systems and flooding. As roots cling to crumbling dirt, these sculptures are a monument, but also as a symbol for rejuvenating ecosystems.

Open every day until 27th November 10-5.30pm

The Merz Barn will close its doors to the public after this. This is your last chance !

The Merz Barn, Lake District , Elterwater.

Photos by @tell_your_story_walking

#merzbarn #publicsculpture #contemporarysculpture #lakedistrict #kurtschwitters #royalsocietyofsculptors

278

2

Very pleased to announce that I am the winner of the Royal Society of Sculptors Benson-Sedgwick Residency 🎉Thank you so much !

During the residency I will have the opportunity to develop new work at their Metal Fabrication workshop, using scrap material and learning from the experienced Engineers who collaborate with artists, design, sculpture, architecture..and more!
There’s something really empowering about being a female metalworker 💪 and I’m really excited to have this freedom of experimentation in a workshop environment supported by Benson Sedgwick.

Images:
‘GIGANTIC PILE’
It’s the last month to catch my sculpture currently on show at the Merz Barn in the Lake District as part of KS75. The exhibition has been extended until the 27th November 🪱Open to the public daily 10-5.30pm @merzbarn .

Reclaimed Corrugated metal, timber, plywood , cast paper-concrete

Dimensions : gigantic

Watch out for exciting things over the coming year 👀🪱

Photos by @tell_your_story_walking and @laingtateart August 2022

Thank you so much #royalsocietyofsculptors #merzbarn @royal_sculptors
@bensonsedgwick

#contemporarysculpture
#artistresidence
#gilbertbayesaward
#gba
#gba2022 #contemporaryart #contemporarysculpture #publicsculpture #lakedistrict #merzbarn #bensonsedgwick

421

47

Chris Routledge has been discovering the amazing creative community around the Elterwater Merz Barn - as it celebrates its 75th anniversary. It's an excellent read - and you can find it at www.mag-north.com

7

2

🪱🪱🪱
I’ve been artist in residence at the Merz Barn for the last month building a gargantuan worm buried in the woodlands.
As trees came down during storms earlier in the year, they created cavities in the ground. My sculptures grow in and out of these excavation sites, uprooted, entangled in soils and rock unearthing a human made geology.

‘Gigantic Pile’
Reclaimed Corrugated steel, paper-concrete , timber, plywood. A special thanks to @splintershilife and David Middleton for all the amazing help installing 🙏💪

As part of KS75 curated by Ian Hunter , Celia Larner and @laingtateart , supported by the Littoral Trust. Come and visit if you find yourself in the Lake District ☀️🗻

July - November 2022

Merz Barn
Cylinders Estate
Langdale

#KS75 #kurtschwitters #lakedistrict #exhibition #kunst #artexhibition #openingevent #sculpture #contemporarysculpture #publicsculpture #concrete #merzbarn @merzbarn #royalsculptors #metalsculpture #womenmakers #womensculptors #artist #contemporaryart #royalsocietyofsculptors #bensonsedgwick

438

31

@clinckx , Tribute To Kurt Schwitters @merzbarn @factum_foundation - https://merzbarnlangdale.uk Video Assemblage , collage 2013 Merzbarn Elterwater, Langdale, Great Brittain, 2013. I dedicate this video to Ian Hunter and Celia Larner for giving me the opportunity to make this video. Special thanks to Littoral Arts Trust director of the Merz barn project : Ian Hunter and Celia Larner, New research and residential centre for art students, artists and architects to work on a project, a video assemblage as a tribute to Kurt Schwitters, Merz barn. 🔗. I gathered at the shore of England waste that washed ashore from the sea and I did an assemblage action at the Merz barn. During our two weeks time in Ambleside, I created a video performance using waste plastics and other discarded materials that I collected from the moment I set foot in England by boat until we arrived at Schwitters’ atelier in Langdale. After World War I, he collected street trash like scraps of paper, wood, and fabric to create collages and assemblages, which he saw as a way to transform destruction into creation.

During World War II he was a refugee in England who was interned as an enemy alien. Kurt Schwitters had to leave Germany in 1937

Just like my own family who couldn’t stay and had to get out, he made “enartete kunst “

He transformed discarded urban materials into art, giving new meaning to chaos and seeking harmony within a fragmented post-war world. In that sense, his practice anticipated a kind of environmentalism through art.

At this moment, I am writing our own family history.

At the Merzbarn , I made an “invisible sculpture”, a collage hidden behind one of the traditional dry-stone walls typical of the region.

I reversed the video because I went back in time and made an invisible assemblage for him. This video is the result. more info www.clinckx.net #kurtschwitters #merzbarn #christineclinckx #videoinstallation #contemporaryart https://merzbarnlangdale.wordpress.com/ #KONTRAPUNT #contemporaryphotography #antwerpartweekend2019 #contemoraryart #art #actualart #photography #filmprojection #performance #filmperformance

33

0

🔻KS75 is officially OPEN🔺
And we are so excited to share it all with you! Here are a few sneak peeks of just some of the exciting things that have been materialising over these last few weeks, months, and years…!
~ On site you will find all kinds of art, and the culmination of an extraordinary body of work by the equally extraordinary (and incredibly ambitious) Ian Hunter and Celia Larner. The project has been curated by Ian Hunter and Millie Laing-Tate (@laingtateart).
~ The exhibition is free and open daily from 10-5pm. Continues until 16 October 2022.
📸 Pictured here are details of works by:
3. Merz Frauen Collective
4. @danielibbotsonartist
5 + 6. @laingtateart
7. @catrionart
8. @fiskedada
9. Children of Langdale Primary School, in collaboration with @thelaalcollective

54

3

Last week marked the end of my time coleading @merziety with @emma_sheehy_ 💚 it has been a blast to be a Merz Frau, to dive into the crazy and playful world of Merz/Schwitters, and to see what that world looks like in 2022.

Last week we brought a group of rca students to the @merzbarn in the Lake District for the annual Merz Summer School residency. While exploring the last place Kurt Schwitters lived, we got to learn from and help out @millielt94 and @catrionart with their Merz projects, and see what's cooking for Merz festivities later in the summer. We also swam, kayaked, barbecued, went hiking and [very safely] cave exploring.

Stay tuned for what will be happening in merziety next year. In short term events/things to watch:

The Merz Barn is celebrating Kurt Schwitters' 75th Anniversary this summer! Info/teaser below.

"Come along and discover the story of how German Dada artist Kurt Schwitters came to Ambleside as a refugee in 1945, where he met landscape designer Harry Pierce at Cylinders Estate, and began working on what is considered to be his last Merz Bau.

Now a flourishing nature reserve dedicated to preserving the legacy of Schwitters, this summer the site will host a selection of Contemporary artists, architects and local designers, who have come together to make new works in response to the landscape and history of the place.

There will also be a selection of art installations in support of Ukrainian refugees, including an architectural monument buried in the natural woodland."

Opening Event: 30th July from 12-10pm
Open daily 10-6pm until end of October

53

3