Milan, via San Vittore 21
about responsible and sustainable innovation
Michelangelo Pistoletto
In relation to the artistic and social significance of this work, Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto will organize, on the two days preceding the unveiling of the sculpture, a forum entitled "2nd Rebirth Forum – The Apple Made Whole Again" that will be held on the premises of the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan.
Along with some Italian ambassadors of the Third Paradise-Rebirth, the participants in the forum will include representatives of public institutions, university professors and researchers, teachers and members of civil society associations and other entities engaged in practices of responsible and sustainable innovation in a range of spheres, from agriculture to health, from technology to economics, from manufacturing to politics, from architecture to fashion.
The Milan Forum – The Apple Made Whole Again follows the 1st Rebirth Forum—Geografías de la Transformación that was held in November 2015 in Havana, Cuba, where the local Rebirth Embassy – Galleria Continua is coordinating a series of activities corresponding to the ones that will be carried out in Milan.
This coincidence of events has made clear the congruence between the Symbol of Rebirth and the emergence of new geopolitical scenarios, affecting not just the two countries directly involved but also the rest of the world.
For sixty years Cuba attracted the world’s attention as a hotspot and mirror of a social, economic, political and cultural conflict that divided the planet in what was known as the Cold War. Throughout that time the world was caught in the grip of opposing forces in a struggle whose underlying causes have evidently not yet been resolved.
At a moment in which a resumption of relations with the United States is taking place, Cuba assumes a central position on the world stage because of the way in which the situation might evolve. There is an urgent need to develop a completely new balance that will take the place of the previous opposition.
The 1st Rebirth Forum was organized by Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto with the cooperation of the Cuban Rebirth Embassy – Galleria Continua, in synergy with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
Since this is not self-referential art, it is necessary to explain the meaning of this emblematic object that will greet people arriving in Milan and salute those leaving. It is a symbolic work that opens up to the world, just as the railroad station opens the city to the world, on a symbolic level as well.
The purpose of the second Rebirth Forum is to convey to people a deep understanding of the symbolic message of this work and to get them to apply it in their everyday lives.
The forum aims to spark off an active engagement of all sectors of society in the city of Milan in an effort to develop the concept of The Apple Made Whole Again and put it into effect.
At the forum, therefore, the objectives proposed by this work will be discussed, questions will be raised on how to achieve them and activities will be suggested aimed at bringing about a real process of sustainable change in society.
“The symbol of the apple runs through the whole of our history, starting out from the bite, which represents the detachment of the human race from nature and the origin of the artificial world. The Apple Made Whole Again represents the entry into a new era, in which artificial world and natural world are reunited, producing a balance in society that can be extended to a planetary dimension.” The symbol of the The Apple Made Whole Again represents the reassembling of opposing elements: nature and artifice. The apple signifies nature; the bite of the apple signifies artifice, just as we see it utilized in a world famous computer brand that has become an emblem of the way technology is taking over completely from nature. With the The Apple Made Whole Again artifice takes on the task of reinstating the part removed by the bite and reuniting humanity with nature, instead of continuing to widen the gulf between them.
Rebirth places the faculty of creation peculiar to art at the disposal of this enterprise, fulcrum of a process that affects the whole of society; art, in fact, is at the root of every artifact, as the Latin term arti-ficium, something made from art, tells us. This is why the artist, with this symbol, assumes a fundamental responsibility in human society.
Rebirth springs from Michelangelo Pistoletto’s two-decade-long experience with the Cittadellarte workshop of art and society, which combines the creative powers of art with science, technology, economics and politics and brings them to bear on every sector of our lives.
At this workshop, Pistoletto has developed a formula of creation. This consists in the principle enunciated with the Theorem of Trinamics, which defines the very phenomenon of creation through the symbol of the triple circle. The triple circle also represents the synthesis between thesis and antithesis, and thus the equilibrium (the central circle) that emerges from the interaction of opposing forces (the two outer circles).
Rebirth is the dynamics of the number three. It is the combination of two units that gives rise to a third distinct and new unit. The triple circle is a symbol of birth or rebirth, which takes place through the fortuitous or deliberate combination of two subjects, objects or concepts, like the positive and negative poles that produce electricity, like the male and female that generate a new person, like the fusion of oxygen and hydrogen that produce water and like the totalitarianism and anarchy between which democracy has developed.
The forum is being held under the auspices of the United Nations. The program consists of an initial exposition of the Rebirth project, followed by the intervention of the participants in sessions of debate and exchange of ideas. The agendas of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and The Milan Charter form the main plank of the subjects that will be tackled in the discussion of the Seven Themes of Cittadellarte, to be regarded as the basis for a commitment to future development on the part of the participants. The work of the forum will be carried out utilizing the Trinamics method of research and application, which will be presented by Michelangelo Pistoletto and some members of Cittadellarte. The aim is: to bring about a genuine rebirth in the country through an assumption of responsibility for ourselves and for the world.
This responsibility is founded on the search for a new cultural, political, economic and social equilibrium. In order to achieve this goal it will be necessary to start out from culture, and specifically from art understood as creative faculty.
- Education
Application of Trinamics - Nature and Culture
Development of society between natural and artificial - Economics and Government
Relationship between profit and what is free of charge - Anthropology and Sociology of the Contemporary World
Relationship between individualism and the demands of collectivity - Spirituality
Art between religion and politics - City Planning
Integration of town and country - Manufacturing activity
Production and social responsibility
This second forum will mark the beginning in Milan of a Permanent Workshop on Art and Society, consisting of a series of activities that will involve the region, its associations, educational facilities, including schools and universities, public institutions, artists and ordinary citizens. As was the case in Cuba, it will be a workshop that, starting out from specific local characteristics and needs, will lead the various conflicting tendencies to find resolution in an effective equilibrium that society requires on a global scale.
The program will begin with an official presentation, followed by an explanation by Michelangelo Pistoletto of the meaning and objectives of the Rebirth Forum – The Apple Made Whole Again. The forum will continue with sessions of discussion and exchange of ideas in thematic groups formed by all the participants. The document listing the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and the Milan Charter, along with the Seven Themes proposed by Cittadellarte, constitute the main plank of the subjects that will be explored at the meeting.
Friday 18 March, Sala del Cenacolo, from 9.30 am to 7.30 pm (not public)
Saturday 19 March: Auditorium, from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm (open to public and press)
At the conclusion of the forum a document will be drawn up that will constitute the draft of the work program for the Rebirth Permanent Workshop, Milan.
It is planned to follow up this meeting in Milan, after a after a year has passed, with a another forum to see what has come out of the workshop.
Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto is a workshop on a grand scale, a generator of creative energy that develops processes of responsible change in the sectors of culture, manufacturing, economics and politics. The activities of Cittadellarte pursue the basic objective of bringing artistic intervention on a practical level into every sector of civil society in order to contribute in a responsible and effective way to dealing with the profound upheavals of our time. Cittadellarte works for a Responsible Transformation of Society. Pistoletto (Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 50th Venice Biennale and an honorary degree in Political Sciences from the University of Turin) founded Cittadellarte to place art at the center of human activities — economics, politics, culture, fashion, education — and to propose an environmentally sustainable development through an artistic approach.
The symbol of the Third Paradise / REBIRTH, widely used in various contexts and numerous installations all over the world, represents the “rebirth” of society, a new world in which the “human community” is united, in which a dialogue between opposites is promoted in a quest for balance and harmony.
www.terzoparadiso.org
Rebirth is used as a term to indicate the activities and events that are organized under the sign of the Third Paradise.