BIENALSUR 2019, the second edition of the cultural event of contemporary art from Argentina to the world, inaugurates the "Circuito Pistoletto" in the City of Buenos Aires, starting on June 23rd, an artistic itinerary of spaces intervened by the Italian creator. During that week, the biennial reaches its peak - given the high concentration of projects and venues - and continues to display its unique cartography until November with exhibitions by 400 artists in more than 100 venues in 43 cities in 20 countries, all with free admission.
The International Biennial of Contemporary Art of South America, initiates the Pistoletto Circuit, starting on June 23rd, carried out in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Buenos Aires and within the framework of the cycle "Italian Ingenio". It is an artistic itinerary of spaces intervened by the renowned Italian exponent of Arte Povera, which will begin at the National Museum of Decorative Art, then at the National Museum of Fine Arts, continuing at the Old Immigrants Hotel - headquarters of MUNTREF - and will end in the neighborhood of La Boca, at the Benito Quinquela Martín Museum.
On June 23rd the installation "Segno Arte" will be shown in the National Museum of Decorative Art and at the end of that Sunday 23rd - and after the BIENALSUR festival in front of Rubén Darío Square -, the interventions "Segno Arte" and "Venere degli Stracci" in the MNBA will be opened to the public. The latter is a work dating from 1967. The Sculpture brings into dialogue the classical art forms of the museum's permanent collection with sculpture itself immersed in modern life’s disorder.
On the 24th, at 11 am, Pistoletto arrives at the Riachuelo, just in front of the Benito Quinquela Martín Museum in La Boca neighbourhood, again with "Segno Arte" and "Terzo Paradiso", with which he has travelled through different cities, trying to integrate them into his concept of "art city, an artistic action that seeks to install the utopia of art as a resource to modify the society ".
This intervention, part of BIENALSUR, points to the urgent need that contemporary human beings have to invent another dimension of existence between nature and technology. The "Third Paradise" is a symbol inspired by Pistoletto who does nothing but redesign the mathematical symbol of infinity. In the center of this recumbent eight,Pistoletto draws a third circle, that conjugates on the one hand with human being’s nature, and on the other hand, with the artificial paradise represented by technology. This central circle represents the need to find a solution to today’s human crises and conflicts. Thus, in the neighborhood of La Boca, hundreds of plastic bottles were collected which children from that community intervened, to make a large structure with the shape of the symbol of infinity that will serve as a barrier collecting surface garbage in the waters of the Riachuelo. "The Third Paradise is a balanced connection between artifice and nature and represents the generative matrix of a new humanity," explains Pistoletto himself.
The "Segno Arte", which will mark Pistoletto's presence in Buenos Aires, is a reflection of Leonardo Da Vinci's Man of Vitruvius, a meditation on the relationship between body and space.
Meanwhile, on June 25, the BIENALSUR KM0 will be inaugurated at the MUNTREF - Center for Contemporary Art and Immigration Museum - Immigrants Hotel Headquarters. Among other projects and exhibitions, the exhibition "Pistoletto Buenos Aires" will take place there.
“Porte Uffizi", an installation that occupies the entire room 1 of the Contemporary Art Center, includes iconic works by the artist, that traveled from Italy to Buenos Aires, completing its route in his production at the Headquarters. At the same time, in the space of the building's transept, he will present an evolution of the work Metamorphosis, specifically enlarged for BIENALSUR and with local production. Finally, Michelangelo Pistoletto will intervene in the permanent collection of the Museum with four of its characteristic mirrors produced from photos of immigrants taken in the streets of Buenos Aires and with the work Fame Amore Arte. The mirrors will dialogue with the four sections that organize the curatorial route of the permanent collection (travel, arrival, insertion and inheritance).
A fundamental figure in the social and political commitment of art, the Italian will also give a talk on June 26 at 16:30 at the Teatro de la Ribera.
Other options to see the artist's work will be in the gardens of the Italian Embassy where the installation "Il tondo delle otto porte" (The round of eight doors) will be presented, which can be visited on certain days and at certain times.
In the words of curator Marcello Dantas: "The opportunity presented in these exhibitions is to question the circumstances of the times in which we live and our ability to respond with fresh ideas to the foundations of our civilization. Faith in creativity, responsibility in the hands of citizens, respect for diversity and harmonization with our relationship with the environment.
Michelangelo Pistoletto's interventions planned for 2019 in the public space of Buenos Aires are part of the ART IN URBAN SPACE program initiated by BIENALSUR in its first edition, in September 2017. It is the axis of BIENALSUR that articulates the disruptive spirit of intervention and confusion of diverse proposals that contribute to break the daily inertia of those who daily transited these spaces.
