The Embassy of Italy in Buenos Aires, the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum Tres de Febrero in the old Hotel of the Immigrants and the Museum Benito Quinquela Martìn in La Boca: these are just some of the key stops in the Pistoletto Circuit, an urban itinerary conceived to showcase the art of the Biellese artist, one of the main protagonists of Bienalsur 2019. All the above mentioned venues will in fact accommodate an installation by Michelangelo Pistoletto, special guest in this second edition of the event dedicated to contemporary art. The Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de América del Sur unveiled the Pistoletto Circuit, an initiative carried out in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in Buenos Aires, on the 22nd June. Pistoletto’s engagements started on the day of the opening of Bienalsur 2019, with the presentation of The Circle of Eight Doors*, housed in the actual Embassy, the beginning of the artistic circuit in the Argentinian capital. As mentioned in a press note from the Embassy, the artist from Biella ‘took action’ destroying one of the mirrors composing his installation with a hammer. “Every time I perform this action on the mirror, – he explained – it reminds me of the first time I did it, when I found out that by breaking it I didn’t destroy it, but I was in fact multiplying it”.
*The Circle of Eight Doors. Credits: Embassy of Italy in Buenos Aires.
Following the opening day, last Saturday the Pistoletto Circuit took the artist to the Museo National de Arte Decorativo, hosting the installation Segno Arte and a talk centred on this work and on the Venus of the Rags. Monday’s programme included Pistoletto’s visit to the Museo Benito Quiniel Martín in the La Boca neighbourhood of the town of Riachuelo. On this occasion, the artist presented once more Segno Arte and the project Rebirth/Third Paradise, illustrating its peculiarities. In view of a practical-artistic application of the principles of the trinamic symbol, the community of the La Boca neighbourhood involved children and youths in collecting (and painting) thousands of plastic bottles, subsequently used to form an installation of the Third Paradise. The work not only bears a green message (against the overuse of plastic), but also has a practical function: the installation will be placed as a physical ‘barrier’ to collect the rubbish flowing in the waters of the river Riachuelo, one of the most polluted watercourses in the world.
The Third Paradise on the river Riachuelo. Credits: Bienalsur Facebook page.
The next appointment was yesterday, 25th June, with the opening of the exhibition KMO at Muntref- Centro de Arte Contemporáneo y Museo de la Inmigración, which includes a display dedicated to the artist from Biella, called Pistoletto Buenos Aires. It presents the installation Porte Uffizi (in room 1 of the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo), the work Fame Amore Arte (Hunger Love Art) and a new version of Metamorfosi (Metamorphosis). And not only those: the exhibition contains a few Mirror Paintings representing silk-screened pictures of immigrants taken in the streets of Buenos Aires. Michelangelo Pistoletto will also be the protagonist of this afternoon’s conference, scheduled for 16.30 at Teatro de la Ribera.
