Michelangelo Pistoletto's Terzo Paradiso lights up Monte Isola

Michelangelo Pistoletto has created a new version of his Terzo Paradiso for Light is Life – Festa delle Luci A2A, a festival inaugurated on Monte Isola in Lake Iseo as part of Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture 2023. The Terzo Paradiso dell’Energia incorporates waste materials, 16 piles of nets (one for each municipality of the lake), and LED lights used in previous editions of the festival in Bergamo and Brescia. At the center of each pile, the artist placed a symbol referencing the 17th goal of the UN 2030 Agenda: “revitalize the global and local partnership to promote and support sustainable development of the planet.” The concept of the Terzo Paradiso, first presented at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005 in the exhibition L’isola interiore: arte della sopravvivenza curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, represents the fusion of the first and second paradises—a third phase of humanity achieved through balanced connection between artifice and nature. The festival, running from July 8 to 23, 2023, is directed and curated by light artist Angelo Bonello, who also presents his installation Floating Ballerina. Pistoletto’s earlier monumental Venere degli Stracci, recently destroyed by fire, is set to be rebuilt.