With the theme of Artecittà, Art at the Centre 2011 articulates a reflection on the basic vision identified by the concept of the Third Paradise, through which Pistoletto outlines a new perspective centred on the balance between the natural and the artificial paradigms, a third pathway in which human intelligence cooperates with nature in the realisation of a Utopia, a paradise of human dimensions.
With this vision, Cittadellarte has invited a truly polyhedral artist, Alessandro Bergonzoni, with an exhibition of works entitled “GREMBI: soglie dell'inconcepibile” (“WOMBS: thresholds of the inconceivable”).
He will inaugurate the review with a meeting open to the public entitled “Il podio dei paradisi. Infinire: voce del verbo” that will take place in Cittadellarte on June 10th 2011 at 9.30 p.m..

Sociality and creativity find common ground, field of application, in living. Mankind takes its place in the environment, draws sustenance from it and develops a spatial organisation for its community through buildings, networks, distances and use designations. The community subdivides into fractions and among these and their own environmental micro- systems complex relationships develop. The various cultures and economies meet and collide. The city is the living mirror of human nature and its values. Each epoch and each civilisation express specific interpretations of the concept of the city. In these we can read the role that art takes on within the corresponding communities.
If the city is the brain of the civitas that originates it, the contrary is also true: the civitas is the expression of the city, that is to say, the result of the connections that form it.
This is the scenario for the works and research of Cittadellarte, as its very name has announced since its inception. It investigates and undertakes concrete works (as imposed by the nature on which Cittadellarte is founded) on the experiences that can be observed today, in progress at every latitude, of this relationship between culture and city. Cittadellarte has always dedicated particular attention to the experiences of artists and collectives involved in the transformation of the city. Turning the name “Cittadellarte” (City of art – tn) with the term “artecittà” (artcity) we almost manage to touch on this concept that attempts to grasp the paradox of the organic relationship between the city and art: at the same time considering the plastic capacities and the nature of art as being the result of the dynamics and connections emerging between the vital elements that cohabit in the space and within the diffused networks.
The 14th edition of “Art at the Centre of a Responsible Transformation of Society” therefore writes the first page of draft of a sort of atlas of the artcity, the relationship between artistic practises and urban contexts.
The exhibition “Artecittà, art and urban transformation” presents a range of practical experimentations, some of which comprising the work of Cittadellarte itself and its desire to deploy itself in real dimensions by working within very different urban contexts: from the megalopolis of Medellin in Colombia to the historic centre of the city of Sanremo, from the European city of Bordeaux to the medieval city of Montevarchi in Tuscany.
The Art at the Centre review 2011 will then be presenting a selection of works from FRAC Piedmont, the first Regional Fund for Contemporary Art in Italy, started by Piedmont Region and Artissima, managed this year by Cittadellarte. The exhibition, entitled “Dialogues on architecture”, is curated by Francesco Manacorda, director of Artissima, and proposes dialogue both with the theme of Artecittà and with the workshop of UNIDEE (the international residence programme for artists, as previously mentioned, held at Cittadellarte between the 15th of June and the 15th of October): the UNIDEE residents will be invited to offer their responses to the suggestions of the exhibition during the residency period, which will then be incorporated in a further exhibition to be held in October.
In 2011 Cittadellarte was appointed by the Cultural Direction as the FRAC permanent seat with the primary aim of highlighting not only the purposes of the collection in terms of exhibition, but also and above all the educational and didactic importance of this collection. With the theme of Artecittà, “Art at the Centre 2011” articulates a reflection on the basic vision identified by the concept of the Third Paradise, through which Pistoletto outlines a new perspective centred on the balance between the natural and the artificial paradigms, a third pathway in which human intelligence cooperates with nature in the realisation of a Utopia, a paradise of human dimensions.
With this vision Cittadellarte has invited a truly polyhedral artist, Alessandro Bergonzoni, with an exhibition entitled “GREMBI: soglie dell'inconcepibile” (“WOMBS: thresholds of the inconceivable”).
Paolo Naldini
Director Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto