Funds from the New Carlsberg Foundation made it possible in 2015 for Kunsten to acquire Pistolettos work Eleven Less One, consisting of 11 mirrors in body size. However, the work is not complete since Eleven Less One is not only a series of objects but also a performance, in which the artist, equipped with a hammer, will smash the mirrors to reveal opaque color surfaces underneath. The broken mirror pieces will subsequently be incorporated into the work which will take the shape of a permanent installation.
Across media and materials
The world-famous multimedia artist Michelangelo Pistoletto has, since the 60s, been a prominent personality in the contemporary art scene where he became especially known for launching the movement Arte Povera with the art critic Germano Celant as a response to the High Modernism of the 50s. Arte Povera translates to ‘poor’ or ‘simple art’ and used everyday objects and cheap materials for sculptures and installations in an attempt to cross the boundaries between traditional art media and between art and everyday life. It was also during this period when Pistoletto began experimenting with mirrors which has since been a recurring material in his practice.
On 16 September, Pistoletto’s work will thus transform Kunsten’s ‘Lille Sal’ into a mirror cabinet. Bright surfaces of color hide behind the mirrors which will be revealed in the areas Pistoletto crushes during the performance. The result is somewhat akin to colored maps or giant paint blobs that are sprayed onto a canvas. Eleven Less One can be considered a performative self-portrait which changes in nature, meaning and identity depending on the viewers. The work is completed only when the audience stands in front of it, and thus becomes part of the image.
"I see society as a kind of broken mirror. The mirror points to the cohesion of the world. All parts, broken or intact, reflects the world in the same manner that all people share the same DNA. The work is a bleak and simultaneously frolicking play with natural light, the room, the audience's movement patterns and reflections”, says Pistoletto.
Michelangelo Pistoletto - Eleven Less One can be seen at Kunsten from d. 16 September 2016. Exhibition opening and the performance will take place. 16 September at. 17:00.