Michelangelo Pistoletto and Antonio Spadaro debate art as lived experience vs storytelling

In a reflective essay on Artribune, Antonio Spadaro imagines a dialogue with Michelangelo Pistoletto to explore the limits of cultural storytelling in reactivating art. Spadaro initially proposed storytelling as a way to give voice to artworks, but Pistoletto's perspective—channeled through his Quadri specchianti and Terzo Paradiso—counters that art must be lived, not narrated. Pistoletto's mirror paintings invite viewers to become part of the work, while the Terzo Paradiso is a collective symbol to be embodied. Spadaro reconsiders storytelling as an embodied gesture rather than an external interpretation, suggesting that the true encounter between narration and action creates a third space where art is inhabited, shared, and traversed. The essay references their book Spiritualità (Marsilio) and the Ratio studiorum of Jesuit education, as well as Pistoletto's trinamic formula. Spadaro concludes that art no longer asks only to be told or experienced, but to be dwelt in collectively.