SMACH: Pistoletto's "Third Paradise" opens in Bolzano with trees felled by storm Vaia

On Friday 11 July 2025, in anticipation of the opening event of the SMACH biennial, the work Terzo Paradiso by Michelangelo Pistoletto will be inaugurated in Plans , in Colfosco (BZ), in the presence of representatives of the Pistoletto Foundation and the organizers.

The project, curated by Sandro Orlandi Stagl and Phil Mer , was coordinated and realized thanks to the Cultural Hub of the cultural association SMACH with the support of the Pistoletto Foundation – Cittadellarte and Paolo Mozzo of ARTantide Gallery . Indispensable for the realization of the work were Impianti Colfosco as a technical partner; the sponsor Stiftung Südtiroler Sparkasse – Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio ; the volunteers of SMACH, a cultural association supported in this activity, as in all those of previous years, by the entities Autonomous Province of Bolzano and the Autonomous Region of Trentino-Alto Adige.

The permanent installation, made with the wood of fir trees felled by the Vaia storm, has found a home in a meadow made available by the Mersa family, in the locality of Plans, at the foot of the Gardena Pass and near the Sella massif. The Terzo Paradiso integrates harmoniously into the Dolomite landscape, and is also visible from the winter ski network of Val Badia. The installation can be reached via a pedestrian and cycle path and is visible from above by those crossing the Pass, by climbers of the Ferrata Tridentina and by those using the Plans Frara chairlift.

From a conceptual point of view, the Third Paradise represents a synthesis between two opposite conditions : the First Paradise, symbol of the original harmony between human beings and nature , and the Second Paradise, the outcome of the artificial world generated by human ingenuity, a source of progress, but also of ecological and social imbalances. The Third Paradise proposes itself as a “ third way ”, a space of active coexistence and regeneration, in which these polarities can interact, generating sustainability.

At the heart of the project is the idea that art, beyond its aesthetic dimension, can be a tool for awareness and transformation . In this sense, the Third Paradise is configured as a contemporary myth: a symbolic narrative that stimulates individual and collective responsibility, orienting daily action towards a renewed ecological and social awareness. The term “paradise”, from the Persian pairidaeza , “ fenced garden ”, evokes an ethic of care : each person is called to become a “gardener of the planet”, an active custodian of the Earth and the communities that inhabit it.

The work's symbol, a reinterpretation of the mathematical sign of infinity , is composed of three consecutive circles. This essential and meaningful shape becomes the emblem of a possible balance between living and constructed systems. From this perspective, Il Terzo Paradiso is not just an artistic installation , but a cultural and pedagogical infrastructure: a work capable of generating meaning, activating regeneration practices and promoting a systemic, ethical and sustainable vision of living in the contemporary world.