2021 of the Municipal Museum of Modern Art in Ascona will be remembered for the great event dedicated to Michelangelo Pistoletto, one of the major protagonists of the international art scene, which, for the occasion, will propose an innovative project.
The review, curated by Mara Folini and Alberto Fiz, consists of 40 works, including paintings, mirror paintings, installations, videos and rare archive images, from 1958 to 2021, some iconic such as The Venus of rags, Cubic meter of infinity or Mirror paintings, others exhibited only in rare circumstances, such as those with a political theme of the sixties, which refer to the interdisciplinary experience of Zoo.
The initiative is completed at the San Materno Castle Museum, where visitors will be welcomed by Pistoletto himself who, through an interactive video projection, introduces the themes of Third Paradise, one of his most emblematic environmental works.
Il third paradise, made in the park of the Castle, using about ninety plants, is configured as the mathematical symbol of infinity which houses a third central circle inside it, in a triadic dynamic which, on a conceptual level, refers to three moments in the history of humanity: the first is that of the origins, in which man was totally integrated into the Natura; the second is that Artificial, developed by human intelligence, up to the global dimensions reached today with science and technology. The third is the one that is at the center of the other two, as an overcoming of the current conflict between nature and artifice, and which implies a new model of eco-sustainable, deeply democratic and inclusive society.
The meaning of the exhibition is made explicit by the presence a Monte Verita, meeting point at the beginning of the last century for nonconformist artists and intellectuals from all over Europe, of a Third Paradise made with the use of large stones smoothed by time will be donated by the artist and reveals the continuity between his thought and this emblematic place of Ascona, so rich in history and culture.
The exhibition itinerary set up on the two floors of the Municipal Museum of Modern Art in Ascona starts with the section documenting the birth and evolution of Mirror paintings with seven emblematic works including The crowd (1958-1959) and Gold self-portrait (1960) which anticipate the revolution that followed shortly thereafter. Self The crowd presents an anonymous multitude that emerges from the bottom of the picture, Gold self-portrait has the gold background as a reference and expresses the need to free the void behind the figure.
In 1962, the i Mirror paintings and on display it is Bottle from 1963, one of the first examples made with this technique, where an everyday element appears, without emphasis, in the lower part of the mirror. Another particularly significant work is Father and mother from 1968, with Pistoletto's parents seen from behind, in the same position as the observer in front of the mirror.
THEexcursus, which also includes two mirrors from the seventies, Nude woman with gloves e Blue cage, is completed by Self-portrait with Third Paradise notebookof 2017 that seems to converse with Gold self-portrait nearly fifty years earlier.
The review continues with a series of iconic installations from the sixties including the Maze, in corrugated cardboard, from 1969 that completely invades the environment, inside which appears the Pozzo of 1965 which is part of the Items lessalso made with corrugated cardboard and mounted in a circular shape, while on the sides of the same they meet two paradigmatic works in the renewed linguistic context expressed by Arte Povera as Venus of rags 1967 and Wall of bricks from 1968. The installations relate to Split mirror, 1973-1978.
The second half of the sixties is also characterized by collective actions and theatrical performances, which are evoked in a broad and in-depth manner through videos and photographic material. Among these, the images that describe the experience of Zoo, the company created by Pistoletto in 1968 which proposes theatrical and performative actions in unofficial contexts.
In the center of the long corridor, spectators will enjoy moving freely Newspaper sphere which re-proposes a historical work belonging to the series of Items lesswhich already in 1967 was used for an action carried out on the occasion of the collective exhibition Contemplation.
The recycling of information, fluid communication, the overlapping of news and their zeroing are just some of the aspects that make it particularly topical Newspaper sphere which, during the exhibition, will move from the museum to the streets of Ascona on the occasion of a performanceintended to involve the inhabitants of the Borgo.
An entire section is dedicated to Art sign, another fundamental research by Pistoletto, or rather a figure made up of the intersection of two triangles which ideally inscribes a human body with arms raised and legs apart. Of this form, which corresponds to the maximum extension of the body, some works are proposed in different materials, such as Porta-Sign Art, Window-Sign Art, Radiator-Man-Sign Art, Dumpster-Sign Art, Through the Sign Art.
On the second floor of the Museum are located some recent installations of particular significance including Judgment time (2009), which ideally represents a temple in which the four great religions – Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism – are induced to reflect on themselves by placing themselves in front of the mirror with the center Cubic meter of Infinity (1966), a work made up of surfaces that are opaque on the outside but mirror inward, bringing the possibilities of refraction to a climax.
The review closes ideally with Love Difference-Mediterranean Sea, a large mirrored table in the shape of the Mediterranean basin, surrounded by chairs from the various countries bordering this sea. Love difference, presented in 2003 at the Venice Biennale when Pistoletto won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, is a programmatic announcement, a movement that unites the universality of art with the idea of political transnationality.
Also in 2003 the artist writes the manifesto of Third Paradise and draws its symbol, consisting of a reconfiguration of the mathematical infinity sign.
The large photographs of the installations of Third Paradise on the Louvre Pyramid (2013), in the waters in front of Havana (2014), in the Park of the Palais des Nations in Geneva (2015) or on the logo of the International Space Station mission in 2017, are the liaison with new installations Third Paradise which can be admired at Monte Verità and at the San Materno Castle Museum.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalog (Italian-English) Casagrande Editions, with texts by Mara Folini, Alberto Fiz, Paolo Naldini, an intervention by Michelangelo Pistoletto and the interview with Pistoletto by Hans Ulrich Obrist.
