CASERTA.- From November 27th to June 30th, the majestic Royal Palace of Caserta hosts "Metawork," a major exhibition showcasing the revolutionary reflections of Michelangelo Pistoletto on art and society, offering a journey into the visionary concepts of "metamorphosis" and "interconnection."


From Mirror Paintings to interactive installations, experience the transformative power of Pistoletto's art. Browse this curated collection of his books and gain deeper insights into his artistic philosophy and creative process.


Over sixty works by Michelangelo Pistoletto (Biella, 1933) occupy the halls of the Grand Gallery of the Royal Palace of Caserta for seven months. This UNESCO World Heritage Site, a museum of the Ministry of Culture, welcomes one of the most prolific and influential contemporary Italian artists, a key figure in the radical renewal of artistic language and a protagonist of Arte Povera.

The "Metawork" exhibition takes its name from the artwork Metawork-United Portraits, presented for the first time on this occasion. Created from photographic portraits of eight citizens of Cittadellarte, it recombines them through an artificial intelligence program, allowing the transition, already characteristic of Pistoletto's work in the Mirror Paintings, from the individual to the collective dimension.

The exhibition is produced by the Royal Palace of Caserta and Opera Laboratori, in collaboration with Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto and Galleria Continua. It offers a profound exploration of the visionary concepts of "metamorphosis" and "interconnection" central to Pistoletto's work.

“This important exhibition, in its multiplicity, enhances several themes consistent with our museum mission,” states Tiziana Maffei, curator of the exhibition and director of the Royal Palace of Caserta. “The common thread is with Terrae Motus, which constantly brings the Palace back to contemporary times with the artists involved, at the time, in the operation. The attention to dialogue and art – in this place that is the space of an international diplomacy founded on cultural exchange, the circulation of ideas and reflections, experimentation and innovation – finds here a persistent reference. Finally, it is a metaphorical homage to the work that the Palace carries out with commitment, releasing daily technical, creative, and material energy. I thank Maestro Michelangelo Pistoletto and the various actors of this operation for accepting the invitation of the Palace. The space of the Grand Gallery thus continues its journey in the construction of content, expanding its cultural offer in a rich system of relationships.”

Among the themes addressed is the relationship between art and spirituality, with The Time of Judgment. The work, exhibited in the west wing of the Royal Palace, is presented as a temple that brings together the main monotheistic religions – Christianity, Islam, Judaism – and Buddhism. Each religion is represented by a symbolic element placed in front of a mirror: a kneeler, a prayer rug, a Buddha statue.

Michelangelo Pistoletto's art is open to dialogue and exchange. It is a research in continuous evolution and expansion, intended to restore contact between the artistic experience and the outside world. Encounter and dialogue are the focus of many of his works, the result of an aesthetic founded on relationship and participation. The intent is to bring the work out of its own boundaries to bring art into life and life into art.

In 2003, Pistoletto presents the Love Difference - Artistic Movement for an Inter-Mediterranean Policy project at the Venice Biennale. A large mirrored table in the shape of the Mediterranean basin surrounded by chairs donated by the countries bordering the sea. It is the symbol of Love Difference. Two years later, he creates the first installation in which the slogan Love Difference is reproduced in different languages, using neon tubes of different colors, on the facade of the building that houses the popular multi-ethnic market in Piazza della Repubblica in Turin. A permanent installation, subsequently replicated on several occasions.

“Love Difference is a name, a slogan, a programmatic announcement. The movement unites the universality of art with the idea of political transnationality and focuses its activity in the Mediterranean area as it reflects the problems of global society. On the one hand, the difference between ethnicities, religions and cultures is, today, the cause of terrible conflicts; on the other hand, there is a dramatic situation produced by the supremacy of powers that produce uniformity and leveling of differences [...] Uniformity and difference are the two antagonistic terms that represent the maximum conflictual tension in the current planetary reality. A policy that leads to loving differences is vital for the development of new perspectives in the entire social fabric” (Pistoletto, Love Difference Manifesto, 2002).

Also on display at the Royal Palace of Caserta is the Messa a nudo (Naked) series from 2020, which depicts diverse and unique individuals unclothed. Without preconceptions, the human figure is taken in its aesthetic entirety and used by the artist to demonstrate a cross-section of society. Each individual is shown as equal in the face of the beauty of diversity, whether ethnic, cultural, or religious. Overcoming the boundaries marked by the pictorial dimension represents for Pistoletto the opening to a landscape that faces the contemporaneity of existence.

Divisione Moltiplicazione - Terzo Paradiso (Division Multiplication - Third Paradise) is part of the series of works called Division and Multiplication of the Mirror, born from the observation that the mirror can reflect anything except itself. On the eight pairs of mirrors that make up the work is represented the symbol of the Third Paradise, a reconfiguration of the mathematical sign of infinity in which, between the two circles that make up the symbol of infinity assumed by Pistoletto to mean the two opposite poles of nature and artifice, a third circle is inserted. It represents the generative womb of a new humanity, an ideal overcoming of the destructive conflict in which nature and artifice find themselves in today's society.

Also within the sphere of mirrored works are exhibited QR Code Possession - Self-Portrait and ConTatto (WithTouch). In the former, twelve QR codes – a technology that Pistoletto has used since 2019 – are imprinted like tattoos on a frontal image of the artist's body, allowing access to images and texts relating to various moments of his artistic research. In the latter, there is a citation of one of the most famous works of Western art: The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo Buonarroti's sixteenth-century fresco, reproduced in the form of a silkscreen. In Pistoletto's work, however, it is no longer the contact with God's hand that generates the creation of Adam, but it is the device of the division and multiplication of the mirror that generates creation from man's hand alone. In the work Qr Code Possession - The Formula of Creation Meetings (2023), twenty colored QR codes painted on as many large canvases, similar to a series of abstract paintings, refer to video recordings of twenty meetings in which Pistoletto discusses his book The Formula of Creation together with exponents from the world of art, politics, science and religion.

Also on display in the Grand Gallery is the Labyrinth, an emblematic work of Arte Povera, particularly for the use of cardboard, presented for the first time in his solo exhibition at the Boymanns Museum in Amsterdam in 1969. “The labyrinth is a strongly symbolic place. The legend of the Minotaur indicates the monster that lives within us and the possibility that all of us, at a certain moment in our private lives or our collective life, will be forced to face ourselves. My labyrinth is made of corrugated cardboard, a flexible material that allows it to take any form and adapt to any space. In a certain sense, it is like the mirror that welcomes any image. It presents itself as a physical element that is at the same time strongly linked to the imagination” (Pistoletto, interview with G. Celant in Michelangelo Pistoletto. The Mirror of Judgement, exhibition catalog, Serpentine Gallery, London, 2011).


Artdaily participates in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn commissions by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. When you purchase through our links, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. These commissions help us continue curating and sharing the art world’s latest news, stories, and resources with our readers.