MICHELANGELO’S THIRD PARADISE

Until June 2018, you have a chance to visit the solo exhibition of Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto code-named The Third Paradise and held at the Contemporary Art Centre YARAT. His works have previously been exhibited in Europe, Turkey, Japan, and Russia. The idea of ​​the "third paradise", as a more harmonious space for humanity in the future, is the essence of all the works of Pistoletto, who is considered one of the cult founders of the Arte Povera movement.

The art of the poor

Arta Povera literally means the art of the poor. The term was introduced in the late 60s of the last century by art critic Germano Celant. He has become a mind behind the movement of those young people, who denied the rules of traditional art and were eager to create new forms. That is how Italian artists of the late 60s imagined the poor art. According to Celant, "we go through a period of deculturation when the rules of art are collapsing and the language of symbols is disappearing."

Hence, art has ceased to be art in its canonical sense. Young people's protest against academic tenets has soon led to the rejection of industrial and traditional artistic materials in favour of everyday objects such as rags, grass, rusty iron and other half-rubbish materials; mechanical art versus modern technology; dialogue between nature and industry; combination of art and life; integration of trivial things into artistic context.

Michelangelo Pistoletto is considered the master of Arte Povera. Born in Biella, Italy in 1933, he is the creator of the multidisciplinary project Cittadellarte (City of Art), winner of the Golden Lion Prize (Venice Biennale, 2003). He considered himself (like his other companions) a political artist, believed in the social role of art, and hoped that using "poor" materials and renouncing traditional ideas about art as only the pieces of collections would undermine commercialism that had long been present in the world of art.

Cittadellarte is an artistic community set up by Pistoletto, which has been operating on the territory of a factory that he had bought earlier. Members of this community quite consciously, and not spontaneously, consider themselves missionaries from the fine arts entitled to build a worldwide network of objects and events embodying the idea of ​​the "third paradise". The artists (once again for the twentieth century!) have tried to overcome the status of art as a commodity. To accomplish this mission, they have abandoned traditional paints and canvases using rags, newspapers, glass and other cheap, sometimes garbage materials instead. That’s how they tried to bring art closer to life.

Pistoletto’s Venus of the Rags is such works, which he has repeatedly exhibited at many biennials. It is a statue of the Roman goddess Venus with a large pile of brightly coloured, discarded clothes that are heaped on the floor. The Venus statue is positioned with its back to the viewer as if emphasizing that this pile of clothes represent ephemeral values. They are not eternal. But Venus is a symbol of beauty and ideal form: the concept of eternal and infinity, as life itself.

Venus is you

You can find a slightly updated version of this piece of art at our exhibition. The only difference is that there is no statue of Venus. There is a mirror blocking the exhibition hall. On both sides of it are heaps of clothes: white clothes on one side and the coloured ones on the other. That is why anyone, who comes closer and looks in the mirror, can feel himself Venus or that enduring value related to the eternal concepts of beauty and perfection. It means everyone who looks in the mirror is Venus, a symbol of forms expressed precisely and clearly versus perishable and rapidly disappearing values.

In general, Pistoletto likes working with mirrors. It seems they attract and fascinate him with their magnetic, magical, and mystical potential. Mirrors are like the atoms of crushing reality. Mirrors are like a labyrinth of reality into a parallel world. Mirrors is a world of parallel possibilities and a path to oneself. They are a portal into the future, into the ideal reality, which the master has encrypted in the double infinity sign.

The code of infinity

In esotericism, an inverted eight stands for two opposite worlds. It means the infinity of perfection, the unity of masculine and feminine energies, their infinite harmony; light and darkness; birth and death.

In philosophy, infinity is an attribute of space and time. Time is the speed, which the soul takes to make a single loop. The space is bounded by one loop. Any individual can interact with another loop only by changing himself. Life in a physical body is a right-handed loop, which becomes left-handed after death.

In literature, Vladimir Nabokov uses the symbol of infinity in his book The Gift as a two-dimensional Möbius strip to explain the creative development of one of his characters, which gradually turns into a process of infinite perfection, hence the moral, intellectual, professional transformation of the self. Armin Deutsch warns the reader in A Subway Named Möbius: do not joke with infinity; otherwise, you can dissolve in time and space.

The theory of new Renaissance from signor Pistoletto

The artist has been engaged in practical implementation of the artistic concept of the Third Paradise for more than ten years. It is based on his own philosophy, which in turn is based on the fusion of two infinity symbols joined by a single circle, which forms the largest part of this composition - the central, joining circle. Mr. Pistoletto believes that human life "consists of polar principles: life and death, black and white, useful and harmful, general and particular, but only now it is possible to replace the common sign of infinity with a triune composition by placing a space for creative synthesis, or harmony, in its centre.

But why there are three paradises, not four or five, for example? It is simple. The First Paradise is the nature, the world where each individual finds itself after the birth. Mother Nature was created to help us understand her and comprehend the universal harmony. But instead of following this steep learning curve, we begin struggling with the nature trying to occupy a dominant position. The Second Paradise is the result of our intellectual, but not spiritual, efforts to create a material world with an aggressive self. Modern technologies are in conflict with the nature bringing humanity to a dangerous point of self-destruction. Hence, the Third Paradise provides us with an opportunity to unite with the nature harmoniously. In other words, we are able to create a new space, a new civilization that will live in a harmonious union with nature. But the artist warns that the symbol of infinity is something that is constantly escaping. Therefore, one can never possess the infinity. Infinity is freedom arising emerging when the contradictions are removed. That is when the third element comes into play: the central space for synthesis, creation.

Mirror paintings

Mirror is a mystical thing. Ancient people believed that the mirrors mark a boundary between the worlds magically connecting the reflection with the reflected. Mirrors serve as invisible connections between the visible and parallel worlds. A mirror reflects the soul and life of man, his past and future. Pistoletto is very fond of working with mirrors as an artistic material. His "mirror paintings" reflect not only the audience but also naturalistic sculptures made by the artist himself. He has created many such works, some of which are exhibited in Baku. They reflect the reality captured by the master, and the momentary reality that is reflected in the mirror with your arrival. And now the plot proposed by the author is condensed by your presence and your, naturally, participation in this story. You can stand in front of any work and see yourself in dialogue with the character captured by the artist. A feeling unusual to strangeness! People with a highly developed fantasy and a heightened sense of space seem to be moving into the looking-glass like Alice, the heroine of Lewis Carroll, to Wonderland. This is especially felt when the mirror image is represented by one character. For example, pensively leaning on the railing of a Girl, or an athlete guy, a real sculpture speaking with its own reflection in the mirror, or a self-portrait!

Looking at the mirror signor Pistoletto, standing in front, you get a double reality: here and now - opposite and there - in the mirror reflection, where you find yourself behind him. The effect is almost mystical! At least at the level of visual perception it is so. It was for this kind of achievement in art that the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto received in 2003 a special "Golden Lion" at the Venice Biennale with the definition: "For life achievements."

Signor Pistoleto, like any other representative of the sixties, is a radical utopian. He believes that his work is changing the world for the better. He is still in continuous creative search - the true meaning of human life, the meaning of the existence of the world, as well as ideal beauty. He believes that we will not miss the "third paradise", as Adam and Eve did once destroying the first. The second paradise is a paradise of techno-utopia where no fancy gadgets can bring happiness, alas. But what is happiness in general? According to the concept of the "third paradise", it is an endless quest for the infinite. Master Pistoletto turns 85 years old on June 23, and he is still in constant search.