Michelangelo Pistoletto ’s Third Paradise also lands in Egypt, among the majestic Pyramids of Giza, as part of the fifth edition of Forever Is Now, an international contemporary art exhibition open to the public from Nov. 11 to Dec. 6, 2025. The work, promoted by Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, becomes a symbol of dialogue between past and future, placing itself at the center of one of the world’s most evocative places.
The event brings together internationally renowned artists, who are called upon to reinterpret the legacy of the Pyramids of Giza through their own contemporary artistic practices. Set up within the UNESCO site and its surrounding spaces, the exhibition aims not only to celebrate the past, but to intertwine it with the present, exploring the symbolic and cultural value of the pyramids as a symbol of the human desire for immortality and infinity.
Michelangelo Pistoletto’s project represents a symbolic encounter between two expressions of eternity: on the one hand the Pyramids, immortal monuments of antiquity, and on the other hand the Third Paradise, a universal sign of regeneration and harmony between nature and artifice. The symbol, a reinterpretation of the mathematical sign ofinfinity, adds a third central circle that symbolizes the balance between the natural world and the man-made world through art, science and technology. Pistoletto describes it as a collective work, an emblem of responsibility and rebirth that invites humanity to reconcile with the planet.
“The pyramids are the base, the origin of our whole story,” explains Michelangelo Pistoletto, "which passes through ancient Rome and Greece and even connects to the most pressing issues of the present: the human need to look toward the sky, to reach it as a goal, while remaining deeply rooted in the earth. The pyramids represent the human being’s desire for survival in terms of immortality, which then becomes the mirror icon I created. Art thus takes on a dimension that transcends time and is reborn today through the trinamic formula of the Third Paradise, which leads to the third phase of humanity-a phase that draws conclusions from everything that has happened so far in order to begin again. We have the past on one side, in one of the circles of the Trinamica; the future in the opposite circle; and our present condition in the center, which gathers all the past to transform it into the future and, at the same time, reconnect the future to the past. That is why it is so important today to have the Trinamic symbol of creation placed right in front of the pyramids: to reconnect us with history and project us into the future."
“The stones of the pyramids of Giza, Pistoletto’s work and all the monuments of history stand before human events as silent witnesses: time leaves marks on them century after century like hieroglyphics on an extended skin that humanity traces and leaves behind for generations to come,” says Paolo Naldini, director of Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte. “The future is already now, built by our works. The stones tell tomorrow the stories of today embedded in their silence: stories of pharaohs and workers, of life in the beyond and here on earth, of architectures to unite earth with heaven and every other opposition, of artists and seekers of truth, of poor people and princes. The sky and the desert, here in Giza, are reflected in each other, and in the center of a circle of stones a mirror welcomes every passerby, for a moment, into the embrace of history that devours the universe. Here the great void is revealed with no more war because every people and every person unconditionally find space there to live and die together. The monument admonishes and shows. Will we be able to understand?”
Alongside Pistoletto, the exhibition also features the works of nine other international artists, each committed to rereading the link between past and future through different visual languages: Alexandre Farto aka Vhils (Portugal), Mert Ege Köse (Turkey), Recycle Group (France and Russia), J-Park (South Korea), Alex Proba & SolidNature, Nadim Karam (Lebanon), Ana Ferrari (Brazil), King Houndekpinkou (West Africa) and Salha El Masry (Egypt).
Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte thanks Galleria Continua and Emanuele Montibeller for their collaboration.
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| Pistoletto's Third Paradise in Egypt, among the Pyramids of Giza |
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