Installed in a consecrated space devoted to prayer and worship, it acquires a renewed force, opening up reflection on the most delicate issues facing humankind in the contemporary world, such as the conflict between religions, the acceptance of differences, multiculturality, but also the role art can still play in creating common ground for mutual engagement.
According to Pistoletto, the evolution of human society has reached a point where it is necessary to assume the maximum responsibility and commitment. In Il Tempo del Giudizio (The Time of Judgment), on view in the Sala del Capitolo (chapter room), the four most widespread religions in the world – Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism – are each prompted to reflect upon themselves in a moment of radical self-confession. Each religion is represented by a symbolic element placed in front of a mirror: a statue of Buddha, a prayer mat facing Mecca, a kneeler. The exception is Judaism, presented as mirrors in the form of the tables of the law. “‘Art takes on religion’ means that art actively takes possession of those structures, such as religion, which rule thought; not with a view to replacing them itself, but in order to substitute them with a different interpretative system, a system intended to enhance people’s capacity to exert the functions of their own thought”, declares the artist.
The exposition offers a summary of the artist’s whole career from his earliest works to today. The selection of the works on view includes both the most representative historical works from the beginning of Pistoletto’s artistic activity (1960) to the most recent (2017). Each of these works contains its own story and its own modernity in a space-time continuum that does not allow for splitting or sudden fractures. It begins with a series of self-portraits on canvas of his youthful period, where the artist asks himself about the search for his own dimension and own space.
View of the exhibition, MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO, One and One makes Three,
Collateral Event of the 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore and Officina dell’Arte Spirituale, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venezia, 2017. Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Habana. Photo by: Oak Taylor-Smith
La Habana – People Waiting, 2015, silkscreen on super mirror stainless steel, 250×500 cm. Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Les Moulins / Habana. Photo by: Oak Taylor-Smith