Merzmensch - Children with the last copy of Gallirana (1951)

From the series: NeoreAIlism
Paper: Hahnemühle Fine Art Archival Print
Sheet size: 40 × 40 cm with 1 cm white border around the motif.
Year: Edition of 2025
Edition: 3 + 1 AP
Signed, dated and edition numbered by the artist on a separate label.

Merzmensch – Children with the last copy of Gallirana (1951)

There it sits – half amphibian, half myth.

And they – the children – are his last witnesses.

In Children with the Last Copy of Gallirana (1951), Merzmensch presents one of the most enigmatic images from his Neorealism series. A group of serious-faced children pose with what looks like a giant toad—or a species entirely its own. The scene is staged with the aesthetic precision of a mid-century school portrait, yet there's something profoundly uncanny about it.

Who – or what – is Gallirana?

An extinct species? A local legend? A metaphor?

As with all of Merzmensch's works, the power lies in the tension between visual credibility and narrative absurdity. The photograph seems unearthed from an archive that never existed, like a forgotten chapter of natural history preserved not by science but by artifice and memory.

This work speaks of childhood as something both wonderful and conspiratorial. The children don't smile. They don't offer explanations. They are simply there. As if to say, "We remember. Will you remember too?"