The Arte Povera pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee brings his vision to the shadow of the pyramids.
In a monumental moment for the global art scene, Forever Is Now returns for its fifth edition with a name that needs no introduction: Michelangelo Pistoletto.
Art D’Égypte by CulturVator in partnership with the Italian Embassy in Cairo and the Italian Institute of culture in Cairo; are proud to announce that Michelangelo Pistoletto, one of the most revolutionary artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. This year he will be among the featured artists in the fifth edition of Forever Is Now, the first international contemporary art exhibition held at the Pyramids of Giza that will take place from 30th October to 22nd November.
The visionary founder of Arte Poveraand one of the most influential contemporary artists of our time, Pistoletto will present a monumental installation at the Great Pyramids of Giza, uniting the echoes of ancient civilisation with the pulse of modern thought. His participation in Forever Is Now .05 marks a fusion of artistic legacy and ancient history that promises to captivate the world. Pistoletto is best known for his iconic Mirror Paintings, which break the barrier between artwork and audience, and for founding Cittadellarte, a multidisciplinary lab dedicated to using art as a driver for societal change. His career spans over six decades with exhibitions at the world’s most prestigious institutions, including the MoMA, Tate Modern and Venice Biennale, where Cittadellarte, for this year’s edition, is starring with a special installation of the Third Paradise which will open its doors for visitors from all over the world.
As a concrete manifestation of his view of art as a bridge between cultures and a generator of spaces of togetherness, Pistoletto and his Foundation develops this prestigious invitation by Art D’Egypte by CulturVator into an opportunity for an artist residing in Egypte to enroll into their Unidee Academy, in Biella (Italy, near Milan), for a 3 years bachelor course. The awarded applicant will have fees and accommodation expenses fully covered by Italian Institute of Culture in Cairo for the first year, and for the following two by Pistoletto Foundation Cittadellarte itself.
“Having Michelangelo Pistoletto join Forever Is Now .05 is a historic moment for Egypt and for global contemporary art, and bringing his voice to the Pyramids is not just symbolic, it’s visionary.” says Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, Founder of Art D’Égypte by CulturVator.
“I am thrilled at the prospect of starting a conversation with Egyptian art scene, artists and cultural institutions. Cittadellarte aims at making art as a bridge between peoples, across cultures and geographies. That is what art can do: connect and weave together people’s lives and stories from different environments and times. I take the invitation from Art d’Egypte and the collaboration with Italian Institute of Culture as an opportunity to build a bridge across the mediterranean sea that connects Venice and Cairo through the same artwork, a symbol of creation, balance, harmony and peace, the most urgent cures we need, now, everywhere”. says Paolo Naldini, Director of Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte.
Art D’Egypte by CulturVator;
Founded by French-Egyptian curator Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, Art D’Égypte is a privately owned multidisciplinary platform supporting Egypt’s and international arts and cultural scene through exhibitions, international collaborations, and community engagement. Its umbrella initiative, CulturVator, extends this mission by activating spaces across creative disciplines; from visual arts, fashion and film to design and heritage while fostering global cultural exchange. Art D’Égypte’s flagship exhibition, Forever Is Now, is the first international contemporary art exhibition to be held at Egypt’s iconic heritage sites. Presented annually, it creates a unique dialogue between ancient history and contemporary artistic expression, with four successful editions held since 2021. Since 2019, Art D’Égypte has expanded internationally, participating in global art exhibitions and launching educational initiatives such as podcasts and lecture series. Committed to inclusivity and sustainability, Art D’Égypte has received the patronage of UNESCO since 2019.
Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte
Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte is a factory of culture, a hub, an extended community of thinkers, administrators, innovators from every field. It presents itself as a collective artistic project that aims to inspire and produce a transformation of society in a responsible sense through the engagement of art in every sector of human activity. Cittadellarte presents itself as a school-laboratory dedicated to the study, experimentation, development of Demopraxy and other practices that translate the symbol of the Third Paradise into reality, starting from the single individual up to the highest organizations such as the United Nations.
Cittadellarte – which hosts the permanent headquarters of the Third Paradise – and its founder Michelangelo Pistoletto bring the symbol to reincarnate in hundreds of installations produced by communities around the world and by the 250 Rebirth/Third Paradise Embassies that, to date, are counted.
UNIDEE Residency Program
In 1999 Michelangelo Pistoletto founded the reknown programme of artists’ residencies for art and social transformation named University of Ideas, UNIDEE Residency Program. The programme is open to artists and professionals from all over the world and it aims at providing instruments for “artivators”, i.e. subjects working at the boundaries between artistic practices, processes of social change and collaborations with communities external to the art world, weaving together moments of interdisciplinary research, exchange of knowledge and practical activities. The objective of the programme is to provide the participants with the inspiration, motivation and instruments to activate, develop or strengthen artistic initiatives based on the involvement of local ecologies. Since 1999, the residency programmes have registered the participation of over 3.000 students and professionals from 52 different countries.
Accademia Unidee
As an emanation of Cittadellarte itself, an art academy for sustainability is active since 2019, the Accademia Unidee. Born to build a sustainable future and a vision of a possible balance between artifice and nature, the academy is a place dedicated to study, research and sharing; a place where freedom and responsibility are cultivated, towards oneself, others, society, the planet. The teaching of the Accademia Unidee is in continuous development and listening to the most advanced practices of sharing learning. It follows an interdisciplinary approach, based on direct experience, collaboration, theoretical-critical training and practice.
Biography of Michelangelo Pistoletto
Michelangelo Pistoletto was born in Biella in 1933. He began to exhibit his work in 1955 and in 1960 he had his first solo show at Galleria Galatea in Turin. An inquiry into self-portraiture characterizes his early work. In 1962 he began to create his Mirror Paintings, which soon brought him international recognition and success.
In 1965 and 1966 he produced a group of works entitled Minus Objects, considered fundamental to the birth of Arte Povera, an art movement of which Pistoletto was an animating force and a protagonist. In 1967 he began to work outside traditional exhibition spaces, with the first instances of that “creative collaboration” he developed over the following decades by bringing together artists from different disciplines and diverse sectors of society.
In the early eighties he made a series of sculptures in rigid polyurethane, later also realized in marble. From 1985 to 1989 he created the series of “dark volumes” called Art of Squalor. In the 1990s, he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and, with Progetto Arte and the creation of Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, he brought art in relation with diverse spheres of society with the aim of inspiring and producing responsible social change. In 2003 he won the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for Lifelong Achievement. In 2004 the University of Turin awarded him a laurea honoris causa in Political Science. On that occasion the artist announced what has become the most recent phase of his work, Third Paradise, which would become a large collective and participatory work over the following decades. In 2007 he received the Wolf Foundation Prize in the Arts and in 2013 the Praemium Imperiale for painting.
In 2017, his book Ominitheism and Demopraxy. Manifesto for a regeneration of society was published. In 2021 the Universario, an exhibition space in which the artist presents his most recent research, was inaugurated at Cittadellarte. In 2022, his latest book, The Formula of Creation, is published, in which he retraces the fundamental steps and evolution of his entire artistic career and theoretical reflection.
