Having originated during the years that have seen an exponential acceleration of change in the means and systems involving and conditioning the whole of human society, Turin's Biennial intends to research and present those creative forms that confront the problems of society in today's complex and contradictory panorama of civilisation. Consequently, the contemporary presence of various artistic disciplines in a single event will not be presented as a concentration of festivals or separate events, but as territory, both ideal and practical, where the different fields are brought closer together by means of a precise common objective. This objective can be identified in a precise need that is intrinsic to every single artistic expression and in harmony with the widespread, much felt requirements in the vast context of society. This convergence and coming together of divers expressive forms (while maintaining a maximum degree of autonomy in their differences) is comprised in the significance of a theme that organically links art with social structures. Precisely this connection between art and society is the basic reasoning that will give an organic sense to this Turin Biennial.


I thought, in fact, of connoting this event with a title announcing the programme - BIG SOCIAL GAME: let us play together at changing society. This is an invitation to young people, to those young people in every artistic field who today feel an urgent need to launch their imagination upon ideas of sensitive, responsible social transformation. Art stakes itself in this game and actually intervenes in social spheres without losing its roots or autonomy. This is art's commitment, a responsibility of art that moves through the charming idea of game playing, adventure and marvel. Things change through play. One can win or lose, it does not matter; the important thing is to play. Pleasure in making forms change is translated into pleasure in bringing changes also to the systems that contain the products, whether they are visual, theatrical, musical or architectural.


Art has reached that degree of excellence and sovereignty that I would define with the paradigm of "orthodoxy". As for the great religions, the cathedrals of art grow ever more numerous and imposing and an auto-referential aura of artistic mysticism is being diffused. This event aims to be placed on another side of art itself, the "heterodox" side. This prepares to meet and intertwine with the ordinary things of life; it mixes with everyday facts; it interacts with the scientific, economic and political undertakings of our time without, though, ever losing its own central propositional capacity. It is not about applied art, it is about implicated art.



Artistic Director
Michelangelo Pistoletto


www.cittadellarte.it