Il terzo paradiso
Il mare e la plastica
Michelangelo Pistoletto
A majestic work that appears from the sea to the city. A work created with plastic and waste that has been dumped on the coast from our sea and that citizens have collected and assembled to personally contribute to the creation of the Third Paradise by Michelangelo Pistoletto, an artist who for years has been leading an awareness campaign on the issues related to plastic and environmental sustainability. The symbol of the Third Paradise: two circles joined by a central third, reusing waste recovered from the sea or abandoned in the environment.
A project promoted by the Oelle Mediterraneo Antico Foundation, sponsored by the Ministry of the Environment and Land Protection and the WWF and supported by many local and national organizations, which fight every day to reduce the impact that plastic has on our lives. And after the Venice Biennale, the Louvre esplanade, Milan Fashion Week, the United Nations in Geneva, the sea of Cuba, the European Council Palace in Brussels, the three circles that make up the Third Paradise also arrive in Catania, in the Mediterranean. The installation was inaugurated on June 8, 2019 at the pontoon of the Levante pier of the port of Catania where it remained until June 30, when the work itself was disposed of as plastic waste: "A strange conclusion to an artistic project - explains Ornella Laneri, president of the Oelle Foundation - because the work is no longer there. But we knew we had produced something that would be destroyed. And this is precisely what gives meaning to the entire project and we are proud of it".
Within the project, the awarding of an honorary degree to Michelangelo Pistoletto by the Academy of Fine Arts of Catania, where the artist held a lectio magistralis. Many students followed him, demonstrating their interest in safeguarding the planet, protecting the seas, and ethical battles. Pistoletto's message was clear: to imagine that art and artists can utopically change the world through their sign and their language.
What is the "Terzo Paradiso"?
The "Terzo Paradiso" project consists in leading artifice, that is, science, technology, art, culture and politics to restore life to the Earth. Third Paradise means the passage to a new level of planetary civilization, indispensable to ensure the survival of the human race. Third Paradise is the new myth that leads everyone to assume personal responsibility in this epochal moment. With the New Infinity Sign three circles are drawn: the central one represents the generative womb of the Third Paradise. Third Paradise is the third phase of humanity, which is realized in the balanced connection between artifice and nature. Third Paradise means the passage to a new stage of planetary civilization, indispensable to ensure the survival of the human race. To this end, it is first necessary to re-form the principles and ethical behaviors that guide common life.
Who is Michelangelo Pistoletto?
Born in Biella in 1933. He began exhibiting in 1955 and in 1960 he held his first solo show at the Galleria Galatea in Turin. His early pictorial production was characterized by research into self-portraiture. In the two-year period 1961-1962 he created the Mirror Paintings, which directly include the presence of the spectator in the work, the real dimension of time and also reopen perspective, reversing the Renaissance perspective closed by the avant-gardes of the twentieth century. With these works Pistoletto quickly achieved international recognition and success, which led him to hold, already in the 1960s, solo exhibitions in prestigious galleries and museums in Europe and the United States. The Mirror Paintings would form the basis of his subsequent artistic production and theoretical reflection (...).
