The third Paradise by Michelangelo Pistoletto

THE THIRD PARADISE BY MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO IN THE PARADISE OF THE FRIARS

Once upon a time, the garden and vegetable garden of the convent of the Capuchin Friars of Monterosso was traditionally called by the people with the nickname “Paradise of the friars”. A place then accessible only to the religious and the few men of the village who went to work the land and who told the villagers about this paradise overlooking the splendid sea and the sky.
In a corner of this paradise under two almond trees and in the area of the “garden of the simple” of the convent, the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto has chosen to create a permanent installation of one of his most famous and well-known works: “The Third Paradise”. He set it up using original terracotta vases created by the artist himself which form the three circles, with aromatic plants taken from the simple garden and black and white gravel which enhance the two antithetical opposites.
This is what the artist wrote on the plaque installed in front of the work: “A line, crossing twice, creates three consecutive circles. The two external ones – the world of nature and the one created by man – represent the opposite polarities, that is, all the elements that are different, contrary, antithetical and adverse. In the central circle their conjunction, union, fertilization, fusion takes place and thus peace, balance, harmony, beauty and love are created. We enter a new world, the third stage of humanity. It is the Third Paradise.”
Pistoletto has been a friend of the Monterosso Convent for some time and in particular of Father Renato who is its custodian. An intense and fruitful friendship was born between the two. “The people who come to your convent today – Michelangelo Pistoletto tells him – are looking for identification with the world and for this reason they ask for help, lending themselves to an exchange that is both intellectual and practical. To these people you offer the space and time in this ancient building to give fulfillment to the vocation that arises from the deepest needs. You Father Renato are the convent and we who come here are your new monks, friars, modern brothers”.
The “Third Paradise” thus finds its original location and is enriched with new and intense spiritual and artistic meanings in a setting of rare beauty and charm.

The work was inaugurated on Tuesday 2 August 2022 with the presence of Michelangelo Pistoletto

Michelangelo Pistoletto
was born in Biella in 1933. In 1962 he created the Mirror Paintings, with which he quickly achieved international recognition. He is considered one of the precursors and protagonists of Arte Povera with his Objects in Less (1965-1966) and the Venus of Rags (1967). Starting in 1967, he carried out, outside the traditional exhibition spaces, actions that constitute the first manifestations of that “creative collaboration” that he would develop over the following decades, bringing together artists from different disciplines and increasingly broader sectors of society. In the 1990s he founded Cittadellarte in Biella, placing art in relation to different areas of the social fabric in order to inspire and produce a responsible transformation of society. He has received countless international awards, including the 2003 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale and the 2007 Wolf Foundation Prize in Arts “for his consistently creative career as an artist, educator and activator, whose tireless intelligence has given rise to prescient art forms that contribute to a new understanding of the world.” His latest book, Hominitheism and Demopraxia, was released in 2017. Manifesto for a regeneration of society published by Chiarelettere. His works are present in the major contemporary art museums

Photo: Roberto Fanelli e Marco Mannoni