The exhibition, which is held in Palazzo Reale, extends as well to the natural history Museum, to the Hoepli Planetarium and to the Aquarium
“La pace preventiva” (“pre-emptive peace”) is the exhibition title with which Milan celebrates the Michelangelo Pistoletto 90th birthday, that is extended from Palazzo Reale to three other landmarks of the city.
A response to the pre-emptive war that bears the Bush and Blair copyright, registered in 2003 during the Iraq invasion, involving directly the public in social life and art in society.
The Sala delle Cariatidi, which hosts his cardboard maze, celebrates at the same time the 80th anniversary of the destruction caused by the bombings of 1943.
ICONIC ARTWORKS ON VIEW SUCH AS THE QUADRI SPECCHIANTI AND THE VENERE DEGLI STRACCI
In 1957 in the same place, Picasso exhibited what was destined to become the universal artistic symbol of the opposition to war, Guernica realized in 1937 during the massacre caused by German bombers in the homonymous Spanish town. The minotaur that appeared in the painting is the same destructive figure that ideally inhabits the Pistoletto maze, closing an expressive and conceptual circle. Inside this cardboard maze, we find other iconic artworks that are now part of the collective memory, as the Quadri specchianti, the Venere and the Mela reintegrata, personally installed by Pistoletto.
In 1967 the artist realized the famous Venere degli Stracci (also placed inside the maze) and Germano Celant published the famous article “Arte Povera. Appunti per una guerriglia” on Flash Art no. 5. This marked the birth of the Arte Povera movement, of which the artist of Biella would have been one of the main protagonists.
ACCORDING TO PISTOLETTO, ART MUST BECOME MEANS OF IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOCIETY
Other landmarks of the city host the Master artworks, chosen according to the genius loci in accordance to his poetics. We find Adamo ed Eva at the natural history Museum, one the historical artworks realized with the screen printing technique on supermirror stainless steel, while he exhibits Autoritratto di Stelle at the Hoepli Planetarium, the new lightbox version and the Mar Mediterraneo at the Aquarium. Love Difference, reference to the Mare Nostrum and the related need for collaboration and push for coexistence valuing the differences.
The exhibition curated by Fortunato D'Amico, 10 years later the one given by the Louvre in Paris and the Praemium Imperiale received in Tokyo, shows the artist’s unceasing attitude to experimentation and the desire to make art a tool for improving society, as presented in the book written by Pistoletto in 2022, “La formula della creazione” published by Cittadellarte.
