“Artivism for a responisble social transformation” is the tittle of the new exhibition opened in the Center for Openess and Dialogue, of italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto. The exhibition was opened for the public from 22 of May till the 2 of July.
This is a mixed media exhibition, like: Photography, installations, sculptures, video-installations etc. The common subject in the in the creativity of his works is Artivism, a concept created by the Pistoletto Cittadellarte Foundation that is built/developed from the word “art” and “activism”. Archivalism creates a direct path between the artist and individuals who work with art being developed as a means of influencing reality through social issues.
In the lobby of the COD space, is exhibited the art piece “Love Difference”; the map of the Mediterranean in a mirror, is surrounded by chairs belonging to the cultures or countries around it and at the front of the lobby a sign with the inscription “Love Difference”, an interactive work that gives visitors the opportunity to leave an inscription on it. Also, on the walls of this space, some documenting photographs of some installations interventions in nature are exhibited with the Symbol of the Third Heaven, which according to the artist Trinamika is the dynamic of the number three.
In the smaller room in the right are shown the “Mirror Paintings” made out of a
stainless steel plate, illustrated as a mirror with an image painted on it, obtained by copying a photo enlarged to real-life size. The “Mirror Paintings” are interactive with the visitors and the space they’re located, therefore that makes them “a self-portrait of the world”.
On the corridor in the left the visitor passes through some wooden frames that have writings on top of them: Lavoro (work); Pilitica (politics); Nutrimento; Societa; Comunicazione; Ecologia; Mitologia; Scienza. Along this passage, theres a writing on the LED bearing the title of the Pistoletto foundation “Cittadellarte”. The wooden frame that writes Ecologia, has a sparrow’s nest enclosed in a glass structure; a nest which fell into the hands of the artist while pruning a hedge of roses at the entrance of the Cittadellarte in Biella. In Mythology, at the end of the corridor, one of the representative works of Arte Povera is exhibited, the Venus of Rags, a cement sculpture covered with the dust of volcanic origin placed facing a pile of rags that were mainly used by the artist at the time of creation of Mirror Works.
At the end of the exhibition, the formulas of Pistoletto’s last study related to cosmology are exhibited. Trinamics according to the artist is the principle of creation, the science of relationships and balance. In this corridor, there is also an installation video with the same name where Pistoletto himself explains the meaning and the work “From infinity to creation”. At the end, the Metaverse, Pistoletto Self-Portrait in the medium of Mirror Works is exhibited in which the QR code element is inserted. This work brings twelve codes stamped on the artist’s body as tattoos where they can be scanned by visitors displaying images and footage related to the stages of Pistoletto’s artistic creation.
Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 23 June 1933) is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. His work mainly deals with the subject matter of reflection (especially in his Mirror Paintings) and the unification of art and everyday life in terms of a Gesamtkunstwerk.
In 1996, he founded the art city Cittadelarte – Fondazione Pistoletto in an abandoned textile factory near Biella, as a centre and “laboratory”, supporting and researching creative resources, and producing innovative ideas and possibilities.
Michelangelo Pistoletto’s art was prominently featured in major international exhibitions, including Documenta 7 and 9 in Kassel (1982 and 1992), as well as the Venice Biennales of 1984, 1986, and 1993. Pistoletto received the Leone d’Oro for lifetime achievement at the 2003 Venice Biennale. In 2007, he was awarded the prestigious Wolf Foundation Prize in Jerusalem, acknowledging his extensive contributions to the art world. In 2000 the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona help a retrospective of the his work.
His works are present in the collections of leading museums of modern and contemporary art, including: Macba – Museu d’art contemporani de Barcelona; Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie; Bruxelles, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique; London, Tate Modern; Los Angeles, LACMA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; Marseille, MAC – Musées d´Art Contemporain; Napoli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina Madre; New York, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou-Musee National d’Art Modern; Roma, MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo; San Francisco, MOMASF-Museum of Modern Art; Torino, GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea; Milano, Museo del Novecento. Ecc.
Since 1990, Pistoletto has been living and working in Turin.