The Italian artist and Arte Povera trailblazer Michelangelo Pistoletto has created a new series of works that are being shown on screens in nine cities worldwide. The ambitious public art project entitled Three Mirrors, organised by the UK-based digital art platform Circa, is underpinned by the artist’s concept of “preventive peace”, a formula aimed at preventing conflict in today’s turbulent geopolitical climate.
Launched on 1 April, the Pistoletto works are shown daily at 20:26 (local time) across London’s Piccadilly Lights and on screens in Los Angeles, Accra, Abidjan, Casablanca, Hong Kong and Seoul (until 30 June; all screening locations are on the Circa website). In Italy, the project will launch on 24 April when Three Mirrors can be viewed on public screens in Milan and Rome.
For the trio of works, Pistoletto has drawn directly onto three large sheets of mirror, reflecting three movements linked to his artistic philosophy known as The Third Paradise. The individual titles of the works in the trilogy—filmed at Cittadellarte: Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, the artist’s hometown in northern Italy—are Formula of Creation, Statodellarte and Third Paradise.
In an interview with The Art Newspaper last year, Pistoletto explained the principles of his artistic philosophy saying: “The formula of the Third Paradise is composed of three circles: the two outer circles represent the opposites. At the centre there is an empty circle that is never truly empty, because there we are always confronted with opposing forces such as, for example, war and peace. The central circle is the place where the opposing elements connect and generate a new element. This is creation.”
Circa defines itself as a cultural platform for the 21st century that 'hijacks' advertising and commissions leading artists "to pause the noise and open space for urgency, imagination and dialogue", according to its website. Commissioned artists include Shirin Neshat, Ai Weiwei, Olafur Eliasson and Marina Abramović.
A series of signed editions also form part of the project curated by Circa's founder Josef O’Connor, with 20% of proceeds going towards Circa and the Pistoletto Cittadellarte foundation’s public and educational programmes. A donation will also be made to the United Nations Global Emergency Response Fund.
In an interview with Pistoletto posted on the Circa website, O’Connor says: “The platform [Circa] exists in places usually reserved for commercial persuasion. City screens tell us what to buy, what to desire, who to become. But this [Pistoletto] project asks something else of public space. It asks whether the screen can also become a civic surface, whether visibility can carry meaning, whether public attention can still be turned towards conscience.” Pistoletto meanwhile points out that “preventive peace” is a “formula that allows opposites to exist together without exploding into destruction”.