With
the exhibition Segno Arte (Art Sign), held simultaneously
in Rochechouart, Thiers and Vassivière, France, in the summer
of 1993 Pistoletto began a new phase of work that developed along
two lines, both already marked out in One Hundred Exhibitions
in the Month of October (1976): the making of a series of works
by the artist and the invitation to others to make their own Art
Sign. Pistoletto’s Segno Arte is a figure formed
by the intersection of two triangles that ideally inscribes a human
body with raised arms and spread legs. With this form, used principally
in a basic module measuring 210 x 120 x 60 cm, corresponding to the
greatest extension of the artist’s body, Pistoletto made numerous
works in different materials, such as doors, windows, garbage cans,
etc. In 1999, at the Henry Moore Foundation in Halifax, he created
Core Buildings – Art Sign. As an example of Art
Signs made by others, one may cite Krems Wing, a permanent
sculpture made in Krems in 1997 and composed of light panels, each
of which contains the Art Sign of a Krems resident.
“Normally, tradition imposes one sign for all—a
religious sign, a political sign, an advertising sign, the sign
of a product. Signs invade the world, but only artists have created
personal signs. Now it is time for others, too, to take responsibility
for themselves... Everyone having a sign of their own has the key
to the door of art, a door that leads to a reserved, intimate, personal
space as well as to the space of social meetings” (Michelangelo
Pistoletto, in The Mirror’s Door, Sarajevo 2001,
78).
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