Michelangelo Pistoletto

In March 2004 Turin University granted Pistoletto an honorary degree in Political Science. On that occasion Pistoletto publicly announced the most recent phase of his work, The Third Paradise, the symbol of which is the New Infinity Sign. What is the third paradise? It is a global artistic project that faces the universal problem of humanity's survival; it is the attempt to get the entire humanity to take its responsibilities in giving life back to earth. It is, most of all, the visionary view of an artist. The biblical reference does not have any religious purpose, but is used to give force and meaning to the concept of responsible social change and to fuel a high ideal that unites, in a single endeavour, the arts, the sciences, economics, spirituality and politics.

Michelangelo Pistoletto is an Italian artist and art theorist.? Acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian 'Arte Povera,' his work deals with the subject matter of reflection and the unification of art and everyday life in terms of a universal artwork.? In the mid-1960s the art dealer Ileana Sonnabend introduced him to Europe and the U.S.? His work was awarded a grand prize at the Biennale de Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 1967.? He won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Biennale in 2005.? His works are exhibited permanently in several museums: MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Smithsonian Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, Paris's Beaubourg, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, the Tate Modern in London, and others.