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Michelangelo Pistoletto developed a site specific project, located in the garden of San Servolo Island, inspired by a previous installation by the same name.
| A furrow traced in the ground formed the “new symbol of infinity”, which comprised not two, but three circles. The central one delineated a pregnant belly, product of the coupling of the two circles that made up the old symbol. This belly metaphorically represented the generation of the Third Paradise. According to Pistoletto, the first paradise is the Earthly Paradise that preceded the biting of the apple. This was the natural paradise where everything was regulated by the intelligence of nature itself. The second one is the Artificial Paradise, developed by human intelligence over the course of a very slow process that in the last few centuries has assumed an ever-larger and more exclusive dimension. This paradise consists of artificial needs, artificial comforts, artifical pleasures and all other forms of artifice. A full-blown artificial world has taken shape and continues to grow, consuming and damaging the natural planet in a more and more serious way. The increasingly imminent danger of a tragic collision between these two spheres has been announced in every possible way. In order to stop moving towards this catastrophic event it is necessary to conceive the global project that Pistoletto calls the Third Paradise. This can only be realized through the search for harmony between artifice and nature. |
| The Third Paradise was part of the Inner Island: Art of Survival exhibition curated by Achille Bonito Oliva which featured a retrospective of some of Pistoletto's most famous works (Self Portrait of Stars, 1973; Caressing the Trees, 1973-1982; Place of Meditation, 2000-2005) but also some new installations (Doors to the Uffizi, inspired by the Porte di Palazzo Fabroni, Pistoia 1995) and works by artists from the Cittadellarte Love Difference. |
The mission of Cittadellarte is to “inspire responsible change in society through creative ideas and projects”. According to Pistoletto, founder of Cittadellarte, art should interact with every aspect of society, from economics to politics, from education to communication. The works of Cittadellarte brought Pistoletto's ideal and practical message to Venice International University through its various centers, called "uffizi" or "offices" dedicated to different fields of the social structure. The Uffizi were transferred from Biella to VIU and each (work, politics, economics, production, education, communication offices) had a showroom exhibiting the related projects.
Producing the transformation consisted of eight giant wall posters representing innovative ideas for responsible and sustainable production, developed by various research centers from all around the world.
Italia in persona was a section dedicated to Made in Italy. Italia in Persona is a project whose aim is to rethink the cultural mission of Italian products in a more ethical and sustainable way, considering the human being as the center of society, so that every producer should consider himself as a customer of his own product, taking more care about the quality, the environment, the production methods.
All the different sections of the exhibition were linked by “Geographies of change”, one hundred and twenty colored metal cylinders marking the entire course of the exhibition, displaying Cittadellarte’s worldwide network of contacts that are developing projects directed towards the responsible transformation of society.
Links
Cittadellarte
Terzo Paradiso
Love Difference
Love Difference News Item - The Exhibition
Love Difference News Item - The Inauguration
Inner Island Bonito Oliva Concept
Achille Bonita Oliva curated the exhibition which featured Michelangelo Pistoletto's Third Paradise and other works of the collective art group Cittadellarte led by Pistoletto since 1998. Rocco Buttiglione, Italian Culture Minister, and Gilberto Gil, Minister for Culture of Brazil, were present at the opening on June 8, 2005.
In conjunction with the exhibition, which was part of the 51st Biennale, TeDIS researchers developed a series of workshops with Pistoletto and young international artists from Cittadellarte_Love Difference. They investigated the relationship between creativity, society, sustainabilty and economy.
Cittadellarte’s presence at VIU gave a flush of enthusiasm and stimuli to the institution. This project was the first step towards new training methods, where theory is combined with practical creativity and the semantics of art, providing opportunities to engage and unify, through the discovery of new visions and ideas.
"In the ground at San Servolo I trace the new symbol for infinity that replaces the traditional symbol [...] The new symbol crosses itself twice, defining not just two, but three circles [...] The Third Paradise is the new myth that leads each of us to take on a personal reponsibility in this epoch-making passage".
Michelangelo Pistoletto, 2005
Sandro Chia was born in Florence on 20th April 1946. Having studied at the Istituto d'Arte, he enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, gaining his diploma in 1969.
He travelled extensively in India, Turkey and throughout Europe before settling in Rome in 1970. He continued to work in the conceptual field, exhibiting many times in Rome and in Europe during 1970s.
Having obtained a scholarship from the city of Mönchengladbach in Germany, he worked there from September 1980 until August 1981, and then moved to New York (1981-82) and worked between New York and Ronciglione.
In the 90's he bought Castello Romitorio in Montalcino, home of the Brunello, and now lives and works between New York City, Montalcino, and Rome.
Babbo
Date: 2003
Dimensions: 195x55x55 cm
Weight: 150 kg
Technique: Bronze casting
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Visit Sandro Chia website
Kan Yasuda was born in the city of Bibai on Japan's northenmost island Hokkaido in 1945. He received a master's degree of sculpture from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1969.
He came to Italy in 1970 on fellowship from Italian Government and studied under Professor Pericle Fazzini at Accademy of Arts in Rome. Afterwards he set up his studio at Pietrasanta in northern Italy, a place known for the great marble quarries.
Ishinki ("The Stone")
Technique: Bronze Sculpture
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Visit Kan Yasuda website
This time, the initial setting of the game was a bit more complicated than usual: it had to happen on Venice International University’s campus on the island of San Servolo, inside the physical limit of the island’s walls; it had to follow the logic of the academic institution; the place was familiar somewhat, but most of the actors have been total strangers to us before we started setting up the images… Last but not least, everything had to happen fast – really fast.
The challenge was there, and a new game had to be invented.
The island has had many faces in the past – let’s add another one for a while, mix the layers of the past, imagine a “virtual San Servolo” and map it over the area surrounded by the island’s brick walls… The academic institution has its own structure, complex and precise – let’s mix it up as well, and try to reinvent it from scratch.
The limits are there, and what can you do within them? The Venice “water syndrome” comes into play: a mixture of discipline and chaos. You can enjoy the endlessly changing pattern of the waves in the lagoon, but every drop is following the logic of the underlying currents; watching the sunset from the pier sends your mind over the horizon, but the timetable of the vaporetto sets up the rhythm of your day. You put yourself together, and start the game.
It’s been an extremely intensive week – or was it even less than that? Selecting locations around the island, spending the nights discussing the possible settings for each picture, collecting all the props and arranging the scenes – the whirlpool of the game took over everything else. Sometimes, when beginning to shoot one side of the panorama, we didn’t really know how its other side was going to end – but the underlying logic of the entire game kept everything in place.
Displacement: that’s been the basic rule of the game. Swapping places moved the situations not only in space – each new location transferred the participants to another level, into the space of the game. The actors were free to reenact their everyday activity in a different way, to play their own selves in an ideal classicist world where the grass is green, the sun is shining, and every gesture is full of meaning.
It’s been a give-and-take process, as the game worked both ways – we offered the stage and the setting, and the actors offered their own interpretations of the roles. Improvising together was the best part of it – and we are so grateful to all the students, teachers, researchers and staff members who joined in and had fun together. For the two of us, VIU Life is one of the funniest projects we’ve done till now – and if some of this playful mood, some of the joy we all had in the process of making it has come back from the space of the game to the real life of the University, and stayed there, that will make the picture complete…
Boris Missirkov, Georgi Bogdanov
