Michelangelo Pistoletto: Thirteen Less Two

Michelangelo Pistoletto (b.1933, Biella) will use a wooden hammer to shatter with all his might all but two of a group of mirrors with large golden frames. The perspective changes from the moment the mirrors are broken with the blow of the hammer. Sound and visuality come into play. In the specific performance for the XII Biennial of Havana, the number of mirrors gives the piece its title. In breaking the mirrors, the backgrounds appear in different colors.
According to Pistoletto, the reciprocal reflection of the mirrors constitutes the infinite representation of light and life. However, even the smallest piece of broken mirror maintains the same properties as the whole mirror itself, multiplying its reflective power. At the moment of destruction, it remains etched in the image of the mirror as the memory of a past event imprinted in the present. With this piece, a strong link could be created among the most popular works of Pistoletto, the Mirror-Pictures, as an attempt to escape from the prison of the mirror, to unleash the energy that is locked up in them and the continuation of this idea with the Third Paradise project.