For the event, Michelangelo Pistoletto founder of “LOVE DIFFERENCE – artistic movement for an intermediterranean politic”, has created a mirrored table designed in the form of the sea which borders 5 nations: South Korea, North Korea, China, Russia and Japan. This sea has two names the “Sea of Japan” (towards the shores of the Nipponese island) and the “East Sea” (towards the banks of the Korean peninsula).
Pistoletto has been invited to exhibit his “LOVE DIFFERENCE” table around which will be created a debate, which opens up the way to possible solutions to the problems of conflict inherent in the dual denomination of this sea. This duality in fact currently creates a profound discord that dates back to the bloody conflict and tragic battles that have bloodied the East Asian population.

The sea realised in the work by M Pistoletto – seventh in the “Mediterranean Seas” series – assumes the name of Mirror Sea because of its possibility to be understood as the symbolic mirror that contemporaneously reflects the extreme east and the extreme west of the world. The mirrored work named Mirror Sea will become the meeting place around which will sit Michelangelo Pistoletto, artist (ItalY); Ai Weiwei artist (China); Yongwoo Lee,  Yongwoo Lee, curator of the 8th Gwangju Biennale (South Korea);  Maurizio Bortolotti, commissioner of Europa 1° Gwangju International Fair (Italy); Okwui Enwezor, curator of the Documenta XI, Kassel (USA);  Tatehata Akira Director Osaka National Museum and Yokohama Triennal (Japan);  Sunjung Kim, Director Seoul Media Biennale (Korea) ; Joseph Backstein, Director Moscow Biennale (Russia), Emanuela Baldi and Filippo Fabbrica project curators LOVE DIFFERENCE (ItalY); Alessandra Sandrolini event curator (Italy).

Along with the name established by Pistoletto for his work, the debate will focus on the theme “Artists imagine our future. Economical, political and cultural cooperation in Asia". The participants will discuss how in Asiatic society art can inspire, promote and determine a new culture that is responsible, sustainable and open to dialogue between differences with real effects on political practices.