Michelangelo Pistoletto: “The rebirth of my Venus is a hope for Naples”

NAPLES – It is a work that, in line with all the most recent activity of Michelangelo Pistolettomaster of poor art linked to Naples since the times of Poor Art + Poor Actions which was held in Amalfi at the end of the 1960s, should have a pacifying power. And instead it causes discussion. Even lively. Yesterday morning there Venus of rags was inaugurated in Piazza Municipio, the Angevin Castelnuovo square known throughout the world. The adjective “new” was added because it was remade after the fire that destroyed it last July. The controversy, inaugurated on social media, and which has been going on for months now, also because unfortunately the person who had caused the fire was a 32 year old homeless man ended up in prison, he had an aftermath at the symbolic ribbon cutting. A group of Neapolitans and a regional councilor, Marì Muscarà, protested against the city’s security costs, accusing the Municipality of “distracting itself with culture while in the Vomero district many people have lost their homes due to sinkholes”.

To quell the controversy, the mayor, Gaetano Manfredi, accompanied by his advisor for contemporary art, Vincenzo Trione, author of the operation, announced that, thanks also to the intervention at Bishop Battaglia of Father Antonio Loffredo, creator of initiatives for the recovery of the Rione Sanità, the Venus he will remain permanently in Naples. In a historic basilica in the popular Forcella district, San Pietro ad Aram which, by will of the bishop of Naples Domenico Battaglia, will be called the “Cathedral of Charity”.

Pistoletto, what do you think of the young man who committed the act of destruction against your work?

«I would like to hug him. Seeing him in the face, looking into our eyes. He is a person who has a deep need, and Venus can offer resolution to this dream. I have forgiven him, he is collaborating with us, we must collaborate with him, I think there was a spark of pain in him.”

La Scintilla is also the association that deals with kids in difficulty in Naples, the one that, together with the other social cooperative that deals with female prisoners, Le Lazzarelle, the Municipality has chosen to allocate the funds raised through crowdfunding to their activities at first, when it was thought to use them for the restoration of the Venus.

«It seems like a sign of destiny. One spark destroyed and another will save. I hope that the boy is entrusted to them and, as Father Loffredo said, he can also take care of showing the work to everyone when it is placed in the church. I just went to see her yesterday.”

You donated the Venus of Rags to the city of Naples, why this gesture?

«I am very happy with the rebirth of this work which was done to bring the society back to life. It is dedicated to the regeneration of rags that represent degradation, the maximum negative tension in society, the term lies Venus comes from the word veneration. The beauty that will never cease to exist must transform rags into something new, they must become joy because the Venus regenerates.”

Among the various controversies, it was also said that your work seemed a bit dropped from above, without real contact with the citizens, with the public, as a “public” work should be: what do you think?

“The Venus it represents the beauty that will never cease to exist and that transforms rags into something new, wonderful. In front of Venus, rags become colour, shapes, joy. The rag must become joy because the Venus regenerates. We will support this new installation with a long series of initiatives, which have already begun: one concerns my idea of ​​”Third Paradise”, a garden protected by small curved walls in the desert which must reconcile nature and human beings from this moment of crisis. Since yesterday we have been asking Neapolitans on the street to sign it on a mirrored panel. The next stop will be in the Scampia district.”

The work, after the planned three months in which it will be monitored by a dedicated guard in the square, will go to San Pietro ad Aram. Father Loffredo discussed with the bishop of Naples that this is the beginning of the reopening of churches that have been closed for years, and that it is people like the homeless protagonist of this sad story who are keeping them open with special projects. What do you think?

«I really hope that the rags of mine Venus are transformed into the money necessary to carry out the recovery, regeneration and reintegration initiatives undertaken, even those that concern vulnerable people like him.”