Multiconfessional Place of Meditation and Prayer |
Pistoletto’s
Lieu de recuiellement et de prière was inaugurated
in the summer of 2000 at the Paoli-Calmettes Oncology Institute in
Marseille. The space was divided by screens into five sections arranged
around a central area like the petals of a flower. Four of the sections
host symbols of a major religion; the fifth, for other confessions
as well as nonbelievers, contains a collection of books. The central
area holds the Cubic Meter of Infinity, one of Pistoletto’s
works from 1966, made up of a cube formed by six mirrors with their
reflecting surface turned inward.
“The first fire around which human beings gathered was the center of society. The first stone that gathered people around itself was at once a sculpture and an altar. The first person who placed that stone at the center of the group and etched the cave’s wall was an artist and a prophet. This space of meditation aspires to be a prophetic art place today” (Michelangelo Pistoletto, publication for the inauguration of the work, Bureau des Compétences, Marseille 2000). In 2002 Pistoletto was chief curator of the Turin International Youth Art Biennial, which he called Big Social Game. In the same year Pistoletto received the Italian Presidential Diploma of Distinction in Culture and Art. |
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