One and One makes Three michelangelo pistoletto
A project realized with the support of Galleria Continua, in collaboration with Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore – Benedicti Claustra Onlus in the context of the Collateral Events of the 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
The exposition offers a summary of the artist’s whole career from his earliest works to today.
A key figure in the development of conceptual art and protagonist of the Arte Povera movement, Michelangelo Pistoletto wrote a chapter in the history of art in the second half of the twentieth century, helping to bring Italy to the centre of the creative scene. The exhibition, conceived for the basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore and for the adjoining spaces, the sacristy, the main choir, the Sala del Capitolo and the Officina dell’Arte Spirituale, is a reflection that directly addresses the destiny of humankind and the urgent need for a social change.
In Love Difference, the manifesto drawn up by the artist in 2002, we read: “Love Difference encapsulates a concept which goes beyond a rational notion of ‘tolerance’ for what is diverse and penetrates directly into the sphere of feelings (…). The first thing to accept, in an open, sensitive and warm fashion, are the differences between people and social groups, in order to finally give meaning to the word ‘humanity’.”
In the centre of the basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, Pistoletto presents Suspended Perimeter – Love Difference, an installation comprising a series of “suspended” mirrors that form a circular space. The work stands as a kind of opposite altar, with the mirrors mediating between the visible and the non-visible, extending vision beyond its normal faculties, expanding the features of the eye and the capacity of the mind, to the point of offering us a view of totality.
Suspended Perimeter - Love Difference, 1975-2011, iron, mirror, Ø 10 m. Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Habana. Photo by: Oak Taylor-Smith