Michelangelo Pistoletto Returns to China with 'Oltre lo Specchio'

At 85, Michelangelo Pistoletto (Biella, 1933) opened his solo exhibition 'Oltre lo Specchio' at Galleria Continua in Beijing with a performance where he smashed a mirror with a wooden hammer, a gesture he first performed at the 2008 Yokohama Triennale and reprised at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The shattered mirror evoked the shape of China, amplified by a red background and the Chinese audience's symbolic interpretation. The exhibition presents a journey through Pistoletto's mirror works: on the ground floor, large self-reflecting installations explore division and multiplication; on the second floor, 'Autoritratti specchianti' (self-portraits on mirrored steel) from 1962-63 engage viewers in a collective self-portrait; on the third floor, 'Metrocubo d'infinito' (a one-meter cube of six mirrors) creates a finite space that Pistoletto calls 'infinity minus one'. The artist lectured at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, explaining that breaking mirrors multiplies them. The exhibition runs until October 21, 2018, at Galleria Continua, 2 Jiuxianqiao Rd, Chaoyang Qu.