From Nov. 1, 2025 to Oct. 31, 2026, the Reggia di Monza will host Michelangelo Pistoletto’s exhibition UR-RA - Unity of Religions - Responsibility of Art, curated by Francesco Monico and conceived specifically for the scenic surroundings of the 18th-century mansion, now part of theEuropean Royal Residences, the network uniting royal residences that are custodians of European history and identity; promoted and produced by Consorzio Villa Reale e Parco di Monza and Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto.
Twenty-five years after the inauguration of the Lieu de recueillement et prière at the Paoli-Calmettes Oncological Institute in Marseille-a place that brought together the main religions in a single space-Pistoletto renews his commitment to using art as a means of intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
UR-RA Unity of Religions - Responsibility of Art is structured around an anthological exhibition dedicated to Pistoletto. The rooms of the Villa Reale will feature his early works on canvas from 1957 to his most recent productions, where the spiritual dimension emerges clearly. The event is presented as an immersive experience that interweaves art, religion and spirituality, supporting Pistoletto’s vision of a “Preventive Peace” and underscoring the universal value of art as a vehicle for understanding, peaceful coexistence and harmony between different cultures and religions.
In the Avancorte of the Reggia, Flags of Religions will accompany visitors to the exhibition itinerary, which will begin in the Atrio degli Staffieri with The Infinity Stone and the Interreligious Table for Preventive Peace, a revisitation of the Metro Cube of Infinity belonging to the series Oggetti in meno (1965-1966). The visit will continue to the first piano nobile, where works such as The Priest, Temple, Annunciation, The Trumpets of Judgment, Rocking Temple, The Rotation of the Mirror, The Trinamic Code, Spiritual Arch will be encountered, until it concludes in the Royal Gardens, which will host a new Third Paradise composed of one hundred benches produced from entirely recycled and recyclable materials.
"At the end of the nineteenth century, with the advent of photography, artists stopped representing society by developing a self-analysis of art itself until they reached the total affirmation of the individual autonomy of each artist. This is how the ancient correlation, correspondence and cooperation between art and religion broke down in the Western world, producing a deep existential distance between them, and the artist, in the 1940s-50s, found himself in total solitude.Personally, in 1961 I came to transform the canvas of my self-portrait into a mirror surface, and I overcame my existential isolation by opening the work to the living participation of the whole of existence, which finally appeared within the painting. My self-portrait became the self-portrait of the world, and every person became the protagonist of the work with me. Religions have become indispensable again for art since it now reunites the individual with the world. In fact religion means religare, that is, to unite, to connect, to link. With UR-RA - Unity of Religions - Responsibility of Art we reconnect the two worlds, art and religion, to create a new world together," said Michelangelo Pistoletto.
“The dawn of humanity opens with the artistic phenomenon: the hands imprinted on Paleolithic cave walls mark the emergence of human beings to a spiritual dimension,” explained curator Francesco Monico. "In that primordial gesture there is not only survival, but the recognition of an inner freedom that has accompanied our history ever since. UR-RA - Unity of Religions - Responsibility of Art takes up this legacy and relaunches it: art as a territory of freedom, a space in which human consciousness experiments. With master Michelangelo Pistoletto and with representatives of the great religious traditions - Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam - we wanted to continue that ancient reflection, bringing it into the present. Just as in its origins art shaped the spiritual, even today it can be a bridge between differences, a place of confrontation and dialogue. Art as the root of humanity, as responsibility, as the promise of a shared and dialoguing thought: this alone is the condition for there to be a future, that is, new imaginaries. A future that can exist only by pursuing the Preventive Peace, which is necessary and due so that from confrontation a new path is born, the one that the 21st century urgently needs."
“The Villa Reale opens its doors to a new encounter with the ”contemporary“ that will last a whole year: after the still ongoing experience of Reggia Contemporanea - a marriage between the harmonious classicism of the building and the art of the 20th and 2000s - the silent dialogue between art and construction is enriched with a new exhibition itinerary that relates the works of Michelangelo Pistoletto, an acknowledged master of modern-day art, to the architecture and noble environments of the Reggia,” says Paolo Pilotto, president of the Consorzio Villa Reale e Parco di Monza and mayor of Monza. “An entire year of exhibitions and meetings will be a formidable opportunity for those already familiar with his work, but also for the curious visitor who is open to discovery: in a time that runs and seemingly ’has no time,’ exhibition and meetings will be a challenge to engage with the work of a man who over the years has developed a broader vision of art as a tool for reconciliation, dialogue and collective responsibility. And since art is often prophecy, a clear vision of what is often obscure to many, welcoming his works, listening to his words, meeting him, will perhaps be an extra opportunity for hope in a time that sometimes, fiercely, denies its possibility.”
“When, thanks to the collaboration of Francesco Monico, the opportunity arose to work together with Michelangelo Pistoletto to create a space of confrontation between the main spiritual traditions and secular thought, using art as a ground for dialogue and open exchange, we had no hesitation,” explains the general director of the Consorzio Villa Reale e Parco di Monza Bartolomeo Corsini. “The Villa Reale of Monza is a gentle architecture, which over the centuries has given hospitality to so many hopes and which combines in its appearance solidity, measure and harmony, substantial qualities to foster a creative process capable of generating new shared scenarios. We are ready to support the concept of Preventive Peace and spread it through the universal language of art and spirituality.”
The heart of the project is thus the encounter between art and spirituality, understood as tools for responsible transformation involving different spheres of society: from medicine to finance, from literature to education. Complementing the exhibition are four international conferences on topical issues:
Medicine, Care and Spirituality: investigates the relationship between the humanities, medicine and spirituality, with the aim of strengthening empathy and clinical practice;
Finance, Economics and Spirituality: puts the Western financial model in dialogue with the Islamic model, promoting reflections on economic ethics;
Poetry, Literature and Spirituality: addresses the role of poetic and narrative language in religions, analyzing the impact of languages on thought forms;
Education, Knowledge and Spirituality: addresses the educational and cognitive transformations produced by Artificial Intelligence, giving voice to experts in academia and higher education.
Among the main goals of the exhibition project is the signing of the Monza Charter for Interreligiousness, a document aimed at strengthening cooperation between Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and secular culture.
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| Art, spirituality and religions in Pistoletto's new anthological exhibition at the Reggia di Monza |
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