From May 27th to August 31st, the exhibition of Michelangelo Pistoletto, "The Time of Judgment", curated by Ludovico Pratesi, will have exceptionally an appendix in the monumental Sala delle Baleari of Palazzo Gambacorti, in the Church of Santa Maria della Spina in Pisa. seat of the Municipality of Pisa. In the Church of the Spina, Pistoletto will create a work for the city of Pisa: an installation composed of about 50 chairs that will form the symbol of the Third Paradise. The artist intends to involve citizens in the installation, inviting them to bring a chair to which he is particularly fond of and lend it for the duration of the exhibition. It will be possible to take it directly to the Church of the Spina on Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd May, from 3pm to 7pm.

 

The symbol of the Third Paradise, reconfiguration of the mathematical sign of the infinite, is composed of three consecutive circles. The two outer circles represent all the differences and antinomies, including nature and artifice. The central one is the interpenetration between the opposing circles and represents the generative womb of the new humanity, the starting point of a new era, where everyone assumes the responsibility of working to reach a level of planetary civilization where science, technology, art, culture and politics give new life to the planet Earth.

 

The Third Paradise is the great myth that leads everyone to assume a personal responsibility in the global vision. The first paradise is one in which human beings were totally integrated into nature. The second is the artificial paradise, developed by human intelligence, up to the global dimensions reached today with science and technology. This paradise is made up of artificial needs, artificial products, artificial comforts, artificial pleasures and any other kind of artifice. A real artificial world has been formed which, with exponential progression, generates, in parallel with the beneficial effects, irreversible processes of degradation and consumption of the natural world. The Third Paradise is the third phase of humanity, which is realized in the balanced connection between artifice and nature. Third Paradise means the passage to an unprecedented stage of planetary civilization, which is indispensable for assuring mankind its survival.

 

Michelangelo Pistoletto (Biella, 1933) is one of the greatest living Italian artists. He was born in Biella in 1933. He began exhibiting in 1955. In the two-year period 1961-1962 he arrived at the realization of the mirror paintings, which directly include the presence of the spectator, the real dimension of time and reopen the perspective, reversing the Renaissance one closed from the avant-gardes of the twentieth century. With these works Pistoletto soon reached international recognition and success, which led him to realize, already during the Sixties, personal exhibitions in prestigious galleries and museums in Europe and the United States. The mirror paintings will form the basis of his subsequent artistic production and theoretical reflection. Between 1965 and 1966 he produced a series of works entitled Objects in meno, considered fundamental for the birth of Arte Povera, an artistic movement in which Pistoletto is animator and protagonist. In 2003 he was awarded the Leone d'Oro for the Career at the Venice Biennale. In 2004 the University of Turin awarded him an honorary degree in Political Science. On this occasion the artist announces what constitutes the most recent phase of his work, called Terzo Paradiso.