CHAPTER UU
Collective Unconscious: Hermes, Mercury, Merz.
Schwitters identified so fully with his one-man movement that he often signed letters “Kurt Merz Schwitters,” and sometimes simply “Merz.”
His word Merz—snipped and pasted into the collage later titled Merzbild (“Merz picture”)—was in original context a middle syllable of KOMMERZ UND PRIVAT BANK. The German word Kommerz—from the Latin com + mercari (together + trade)—refers to Mercury, the Greek Hermes—God of commerce, tricksters, thieves and travelers, inventor of the lyre (gifted to Apollo in apology for stealing cattle), and psychopomp who escorts souls to the underworld.
At no time did Schwitters write anything about a Hermes/Mercury/Merz relation.
Kurt Schwitters was born June 20th, 1887: astrological sign Gemini, ruling planet Mercury.
Schwitters wrote, “I don’t believe that…the time of birth…can tell anything about a person.” … “Seek your good fortune within; there you will find it.”
But, says legendary philosopher-priest Hermes Trismegistus in the ancient text Hermetica, “As above, so below.” Thus, planet Mercury magically influences cinnabar—vermilion-red mercury-crystal—in Arabic, zinjifrah or “dragon’s blood;” in German, zinnober—also known as “alchemist’s stone.” Since antiquity, Spanish-mined cinnabar—mercury-sulfide ore—has been distilled to release metallic mercury: quicksilver.
Kurt Schwitters always used cinnabar-red paint for his trademark “KS” signature on collages and paintings.
The German word zinnober has a second definition: nonsense. My father Victor Laties was a toxicologist who in the nineteen-sixties helped prove that mercury—used historically in medicine and industry—is a heavy-metal poison that accumulates in the body, eventually causing tremors, speech disorders, and hallucinations. The phrase “Mad as a hatter”—as in the nonsensical Mad Hatter of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland—refers to the weirdness of nineteenth century hatmakers; this was due to toxic mercury nitrate used in felt. By the twenty-first century, mercury was widely banned; few artists today would risk neuropathology just to paint in authentic red cinnabar.
Mercury to Merz: in 1928, archetypically mercurial Kurt Schwitters cofounded Hannover Zinnoberfest, a nonsense festival. In Kurt Schwitters, A Portrait from Life, frequent collaborator Kate Steinitz, recalls,
All the artists of Hannover forgot their “isms” and manifestos. Even the old-fashioned academicians became suddenly gay and made quite jolly drawings for the big event….
[Kurt Schwitters] turned up the idea of Cinnabar as the festival theme…. Naturally he wrote the text for the festival songs…. It was supposed to be the wildest, reddest Cinnabar ever held in red-decorated rooms! The songs came jumping full-fledged out of Kurt’s head, just as Pallas Athena jumped out of the Greek god’s…. “Jump right into the Cinnabar! Wallow in it!” … [Concert pianist] Walter Gieseking composed the theme song…he let off steam in jazz, without inhibition….
Kurt Schwitters ducked in and out of the crowd when he wasn’t dancing. He danced with powerful enthusiasm, even the very latest dances, all the while emitting his enraptured, “Arrr….” He really held his girls tight. It looked as if he might crack their ribs.
In 2000, Hannover’s artists, gallery owners, and municipal cultural office honored Kurt Schwitters by resurrecting Zinnober; they now present the arts festival every fall. This way to the Cinnabar!
