Mikael Olsson: Michelangelo Pistoletto´s installation Terzo Paradiso

It was as part of the conference The Bureau of Poetry, that Michelangelo Pistoletto came to SSE for a talk and a performance in cooperation with the students in Art Division and Art Initiative. Together we created the Third Paradise out of books from the school´s reading project Literary Agenda. The Literary Agenda is a large book circle project that aims to promote self-reflection, empathy and cultural literacy among students.

The artwork was created in the atrium of the SSE main building, and it was there as an installation for two days: November 13 to November 15, 2024.

Terzo Paradiso/The Third Paradise is a long-term artistic and philosophical project by the Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, a founding father of the Arte Povera movement. The Third Paradise is a collective work that allows participants and others to think about, imagine and create a future where we can live together. 

Ever since 2003, when Pistoletto wrote the manifesto of The Third Paradise and drew its iconic symbol, a reconfiguration of the mathematical sign for infinity, it has it been a symbol of the connection between nature and artifice. It´s a reconfiguration of the mathematical infinity sign, made of three consecutive circles.