The “Culture + Business Protagonists” award conferred on Michelangelo Pistoletto
This morning – 5 October – the artist from Biella was awarded the prestigious recognition in the art sector as part of the programme of the CSR and Social Innovation Forum held at Bocconi's Grafton building. "Pistoletto – said the organisers – is one of the greatest artists of our time because of his visionary ability to generate responsible social transformations through contemporary art: in politics, in the axes of education, in health, as well as in the economy."

    The 10th edition of the CSR and Social Innovation Forum, entitled Sustainable Connections, started on 3 October and concluding today at Bocconi University (Via Roentgen 1, Milan), has delved into the three dimensions of sustainability: social, environmental and economic. In all its editions, the event has contributed to the dissemination of the culture of social responsibility, offered opportunities for a refresher on the topic, and facilitated networking among different social actors. This year too, it has performed several functions as a cultural event; an opportunity for organisations to meet, compare strategies and network; a communication platform to share experiences; a space to gain new knowledge; an activator of positive behaviours; a place where new ideas are generated. Among the many activities that make up the initiative’s wide-ranging programme, this morning Michelangelo Pistoletto was presented with the Artist Award, a subcategory of the Culture + Business Awards. After an introduction by curator Fortunato D’Amico dedicated to the artist from Biella and the Third Paradise with a focus on the link between sustainability and the trinamic symbol, the founder of Cittadellarte intervened live online for the presentation of the ‘virtual’ award, with its designer Lorenzo Marini illustrating its peculiarities. It is the Future Cube (pictured below), a crasis, an encounter between painting and sculpture, between two- and three-dimensional art: “The media is transparent plexiglass: it is a painting interpreted on six faces. The word ‘CUBE’ is deconstructed in random order and pays homage to Futurism using deconstruction. There is no right way up, it is Dadaist. You take away the starting point, the word ‘CUBE’ and the cube itself have many faces. Each letter has its own colours, the word ‘cube’ is suggested. It is in deliberate disarray, it is not tidy, you can read it and turn it in any direction you want. It is a three-dimensional reworking of a two-dimensional painting, a reworking of painting through sculpture”.

      

    Francesco Moneta, chairman of the Culture + Business Committee, and the president of the CCW Cultural Welfare Center and Rebirth/Third Paradise ambassadress Catterina Seia (member of the Culture + Business Steering Committee) also spoke on the occasion. The latter highlighted the motivations for the award: “Pistoletto is one of the greatest artists of our time because of his visionary ability to generate responsible social transformations through contemporary art: in politics, in the axes of education, in health, as well as in the economy. One of his expressions is the symbol of the Third Paradise, a forerunner and universal concept of social responsibility that the artist generously gave to the world to represent the possibility and at the same time the need to co-create new dimensions of harmony between nature and innovation, to completely rethink the systems to ensure the future. Thousands of people and communities across the world recognise themselves in this vision and act as its ambassadors, activating radical changes. A vision that involves businesses, protagonists of a time of profound rethinking of the productive and distribution systems, and of the relationship with their territories, starting from Biella, UNESCO Creative City, home to Cittadellarte, an entity that promotes its thought and action. For years the Third Paradise has been accompanied by a network of businesses that simultaneously decline art, culture, sustainability, internationality, and public-private co-design along its line of thought”. Seia then had a conversation with Pistoletto, who stressed how he considers and lives the relationship with businesses also in terms of sustainability, and concluded by illustrating the principles of the sign-symbol of the Third Paradise.