Michelangelo Pistoletto's Enduring Struggle at Venice Biennale

The article examines Michelangelo Pistoletto's career-long artistic struggle, framed through his 2017 collateral event "One and One Makes Three" at the 57th Venice Biennale. Pistoletto, born in Biella in 1933, transformed the canvas into reflective surfaces with his Mirror Paintings, subverting viewer-object relationships. His practice evolved through a "side step" strategy, embracing contingency and freedom. Key works include Plexiglass pieces, Oggetti in meno, and the Volumi neri (Black Volumes) from his so-called Fourth Generation or "Hard Poetry" phase, made from polyurethane, plaster, and painted canvas. The exhibition, held at the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore and Officina dell'Arte Spirituale on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, also features the Manifesto of Collaboration from the 1968 Biennale, the Third Paradise symbol, and recent works like Mela reintegrata at Milan Central Station. However, the review criticizes the cramped installation and notes a decline in energy, with works like Mela della concordia (2007) and Color and Light (2016) rehashing familiar territory, lacking the vitality of Pistoletto's earlier struggle.