Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Third Paradise in wrought iron to celebrate 50 years of the European Biennial of Blacksmithing Art in Stia
Stia celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the European Biennial of Blacksmithing Art with a special project that brings contemporary art, craftsmanship and the tradition of wrought iron into dialogue. As part of the celebrations dedicated to the event, Michelangelo Pistoletto’s “Third Paradise” will be created in wrought iron.
The work will be developed in collaboration with Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte and curated by Loris Innocenti and Tommaso Venco of Hexisart, with the involvement of blacksmiths, institutions and the community. Wrought iron, the symbolic material of the Stia Biennial, thus becomes the medium through which to give form to one of the most recognisable signs of contemporary Italian art.
The “Third Paradise” was created as an evolution of the mathematical symbol of infinity: to the two side circles, representing nature and artifice, a third central circle is added, symbolising a new possible synthesis between environment, technology, production and human responsibility.
The project takes on particular value in the context of Stia, a village that has always been linked to the artistic working of iron. The European Biennial of Blacksmithing Art, founded in 1976 from an idea by Pier Luigi della Bordella, Ivan Bruschi and the then mayor Vittoriano Frulloni, is today an international point of reference for blacksmiths, artists, artisans, schools and scholars.
After its creation and inauguration, the work will be donated to the Municipality of Pratovecchio Stia and permanently displayed in a public space in the town, leaving a lasting testimony to the fiftieth anniversary of the Biennial.
The initiative confirms the role of the event as a laboratory for encounters between tradition and the future: a place where artisanal knowledge becomes cultural production and enters into dialogue with the languages of contemporary art.
