The Third Paradise in the beating heart of New York. From September 9th to the 28th, the trinamic symbol will illuminate the metropolis with a site-specific installation. The artwork, large 25 by 10 meters, is set up on one of the lawns surrounding the United Nations Secretariat Building, near the Rose Garden. It is a representation of the trinamic symbol created through the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda and is composed of 36 porcelain stoneware tiles, each measuring 120 by 120 centimeters. Each of the SDGs is repeated twice; after both ‘goal 17’ tiles, an additional tile with the SDGs symbol is placed. In addition to the undeniable prestige and weight of a collaboration of this eminence, the variety of organizations that contributed to the conception of this Third Paradise must be highlighted: sponsored by the Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN, the temporary installation is managed by the Alessia Panella Law Firm and Cittadellarte in collaboration with Magazzino Italian Art, Alex Fremura, Shipping Services Italia Srl SB, Riccardo Fuochi and Federico Fuochi. It is especially worth acknowledging the fundamental work conducted for the Pistoletto Foundation by Francesco Saverio Teruzzi (cultural project manager of Cittadellarte) and Alessandro Lacirasella (exhibition project manager).
Paolo Naldini, director of Cittadellarte, flew to New York on Sunday, the 17th of September to inaugurate the installation in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy Antonio Tajani. Mr. Naldini is scheduled for a series of events and meetings at the UN Headquarters, the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Embassy in the USA. It is also an opportunity to meet Monika Wuhrer as well as other friends from the Cittadellarte network, the Third Paradise embassies and the alumni network of the Unidee in Residence International Program, as well as developing projects with partners of the Sustainable Fashion, Politics and Education Office. “Our installations are Activators; they are devices that are not limited to the symbolic dimension – albeit fundamental for our comprehension, as the human mind absorbs through symbols and ideas – rather, they extend to create spaces and opportunities for transformation. Art has always dealt with form. Cittadellarte engages with the ‘forms’ of life on the planet. It does so together with the network of Artivators that our educational institutions welcome, such as Unidee – the University of Ideas Residency Program – in operation since 1999 and the Third Paradise Academy since 2015, the ambassadors of the Third Paradise and the hundreds of organizations that we collaborate with which are largely tracked and promoted by the research endeavors of Visible Project and the archives of Geographies of Change. The United Nations is also part of this social mycorrhiza, which, like the symbiosis between the roots of plants and the fungi of the earth, extends into a network based on alliance. Forging alliances through co-creation is what this Third Paradise symbol represents”.
Teruzzi also spoke to the behind the scenes effort to pull off an exhibition of this caliber: “The idea of this Third Paradise in New York was born in November 2022 when ambassador Maurizio Massari met Alessia Panella who tapped me to bring the idea to life. The result is impactful: the double recognisability of the SDGs and the Trinamic symbol gives even more strength to a message of peace and regeneration of humanity”. The cultural project manager of Cittadellarte then highlights a parallel: “The installation has a natural connection with the work ‘Rebirth‘ which is located at the Palais de Nations in Geneva, but here in the Big Apple it is presented in a different context. It is in fact the same one, albeit with different dimensions, which was created as part of the exhibition ‘From Cittadellarte to the Civilization of Art‘ at Palazzo Ducale in Mantua”. Teruzzi then moved on to one of the ingredients that led to the project’s success: collaboration. “I thank those who worked hard to set up the installation despite the complexities that an operation of this magnitude entails: first of all the curators Alessia Panella and Alessandro Lacirasella; all diplomatic and administrative staff of the Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN; those who were contacted as sponsors but then took on a real co-planning role like Alex Fremura, Riccardo and Federico Fuochi, along with the companies they represent; Giorgio Spanu and Nancy Olnick with Magazzino Italian Art, as well as Alberto Salvadori, who offered us their help despite the fact that they were in the midst of the inauguration of one of their own spaces”. In short, profound teamwork; he concluded: “Objective 17 of the 2030 Agenda must be present in all activities, as we demonstrated in New York: always collaborate to achieve them”.
