On the occasion of Michelangelo Pistoletto's 93rd birthday - which falls today, 25 June - we present the interview with the maestro conducted by Journal director Luca Deias on the occasion of "Arte al Centro 2026".

Tap-tap, footsteps. To reach Michelangelo Pistoletto, one must pass through an opening, along an almost ritual path: the office of Maria, his wife. As the door left ajar gently opens, your gaze meets hers; a slight smile welcomes you naturally. A discreet greeting, a simple gesture. It already contains everything: an invitation, a sense of proportion, a delicate form of attentiveness. In a way, the encounter begins here, even before it takes place.

One proceeds towards the next room, where the private dimension intertwines with the creative one. In the silence, you can listen: works, books, objects, pens and pencils, newspaper pages, traces of life and creation preserved within the table. Each element seems part of a wider balance, in which the everyday and the artistic coexist without separation.

You take a seat. Time slows down, changing consistency. Then he arrives. A direct, attentive look. A hint of a smile. No formal distance, no emphasis, yet everything is charged with intensity. In that domestic dimension which becomes an openness towards the other, the theme of this edition of Arte al Centro — hospitality — manifests itself without declaring itself, even before being named. It is in the passage from one room to another, in the silent gesture of the one who opens, in the familiar rhythm that accompanies the arrival. It is within that boundary that separates and, at the same time, unites.

Sitting opposite, the interview begins. The dialogue takes shape. Michelangelo Pistoletto reflects, concentrates, and starts to speak. And, as happens every time, his words expand beyond the walls, opening up to broader horizons: the family as the first hotel of humanity, hospitality as responsibility, art as a space where differences meet and generate something new. It is from here that this conversation begins: from a door left ajar that becomes wide open. And from the question, still relevant today, of what it truly means to cross it.

Michelangelo, the theme of this edition of Arte al Centro is hospitality. How would you define it today, and what role do you think it plays in the construction of human society?
Hospitality presupposes a will, a movement, a decision: it is the gesture of someone moving towards another, expecting to see and find something they may have partly already imagined, yet remaining open to discovery, to the event itself. It is the moving towards something. This "something" is the arrival point of those who, within that encounter, seek a discovery, a revelation, a possibility: the attainment of what they aspire to. Inspiration is not always rational and the objective is not always defined, except in the possibility of becoming so precisely at the moment of the encounter. Hospitality is therefore also the other side, the one awaiting the person's arrival. Offering those who arrive an opportunity for an experience that is not only practical, but also emotional and intellectual, implies an awareness, on the part of the host, of what can happen in the encounter with those coming from the outside. In that encounter, in fact, something can occur that neither the newcomer nor the host can take for granted. For Cittadellarte, preparing ourselves for hospitality means creating an opportunity for those arriving from outside to experience something extraordinary: an experience that can be significant from the very first impact and then expand in richness and depth. The very concept of the Third Paradise, based on the trinamics of encounter, is symbolic: within the central circle of the triad, a creation is produced, generated by the encounter between two entities represented by the opposing circles.

At Arte al Centro, the Hotel Cittadellarte will be presented. In a hotel, we temporarily inhabit a space that does not belong to us: can this condition teach us a new way of being in the world? As an accommodation facility that welcomes those who arrive and lets go of those who depart, do you consider the hotel a neutral space or a point of crossing between different identities?
The words "hotel", "hospital", and "guest" (ospite) share the same etymological root. Let us think of the hospitale that offered shelter to pilgrims after very long journeys using primitive means of transport, or even just human and animal walking. They were also places of comfort for the sick; therefore, in a certain sense, there is a concept of care, which can arise from finding oneself in the most comfortable situation possible. One does not know the home of origin of each wayfarer, but the idea is that, for a brief moment, that refuge becomes their home. The Hotel Cittadellarte is a hotel you can visit for any reason, but due to its location, it takes on a tourism-related purpose, meaning one of cultural objective, discovery, knowledge, experience, and enrichment. Because Cittadellarte is a sphere of organic-artistic fabric; it is a place experienced as a community, as is evident from its very name.

Sleeping is one of the most intimate acts, in which one is often naked, defenceless: what does it mean to entrust this gesture to a place where art is an active backdrop to the structure? What kind of transformation can occur within the individual when the experience of hospitality intertwines with the creative one?
Before going to bed, you bring with you all the events that have accompanied you up to that moment. Sleeping means accompanying the planetary movement that makes the night a long part of our lives. In surrendering oneself to the nightly event, there is the continuous regeneration of one’s own strengths, both physical and intellectual. During the night, however, our brain does not stop, but works: most of the ideas that will lead to the decisions and activities of the day mature before dawn, in a psychophysical transition that occurs around 5 am. Therefore, the nightly shedding of clothes is reactive and regenerative every single night.

If the world were a hotel, who would be the guest and who would be the guardian?
In a hotel room, you assume autonomy and independence, so you are not merely a guest. You know you must abide by the rules set for the running of the hotel. The guardian is the person who respects your temporary portion of property within the place, but makes a coexistence with all the different properties possible in that context. In my opinion, a good hotel can be considered like good governance, in which a common law accepted by everyone exists, alongside an ability on the part of the guardian to accommodate the guests' autonomy to the utmost.

Every birth brings an act of welcoming: what are we truly welcoming when we bring a human being into the world?
This question immediately makes me think that the first welcoming, if we compare it to a hotel, is the family. The first hotel is precisely the family. The unborn child does not come from nothing, but descends from a DNA of which every human being is constituted, even before being born. Therefore, they are a pre-natal tourist who unconsciously finds themselves at the end of the gestational journey in the "family hotel", where they find their mother, father, brothers, sisters, and gradually the community to which they belong. And so, for me, Cittadellarte is a community that has the family as its primary reference point. On this aspect, however, it is necessary to define what its history is, in order to understand how we can host an unborn child entering the hotel of life today.

Let us therefore undertake this journey backwards, looking at the historical evolution of the family: what dynamics have shaped it, and what picture emerges of its current condition?
In the past, the family was linked to the nature existing on the planet's surface and was governed by the economy of agriculture and farming. Therefore, the economy was entirely based on the birth of many children to ensure plenty of useful hands for rural and artisanal production; thus, on one side, families of labourers were widespread, and on the other, most governments were based on family dynasties. The practical relationship with the subsoil developed over time, from the Iron Age and the age of metals in general. Later, by reaching deeper underground, we extracted hydrocarbons and created the industry that replaced the economic system of the family community. Every person became part of an industrial community that replaced the family in terms of the practical necessity of earning a living, which became individual and personal. For our Foundation, it is a matter of deeply reconsidering the principle of family, in order to bring it to a new conception for the future. Cittadellarte was founded by members of my family, but gradually everyone who operates within it, following its founding principles, becomes part of a community-extended family. The Cittadellarte embassies being established around the world are families belonging to this large family, and it is the family itself that aims, as a fundamental understanding, to bring to the world the grand project of "Preventive Peace in the politics of art".

At Arte al Centro, the Hotel Cittadellarte will be presented. In a hotel, we temporarily inhabit a space that does not belong to us: can this condition teach us a new way of being in the world? As an accommodation facility that welcomes those who arrive and lets go of those who depart, do you consider the hotel a neutral space or a point of crossing between different identities?
The words "hotel", "hospital", and "guest" (ospite) share the same etymological root. Let us think of the hospitale that offered shelter to pilgrims after very long journeys using primitive means of transport, or even just human and animal walking. They were also places of comfort for the sick; therefore, in a certain sense, there is a concept of care, which can arise from finding oneself in the most comfortable situation possible. One does not know the home of origin of each wayfarer, but the idea is that, for a brief moment, that refuge becomes their home. The Hotel Cittadellarte is a hotel you can visit for any reason, but due to its location, it takes on a tourism-related purpose, meaning one of cultural objective, discovery, knowledge, experience, and enrichment. Because Cittadellarte is a sphere of organic-artistic fabric; it is a place experienced as a community, as is evident from its very name.

Sleeping is one of the most intimate acts, in which one is often naked, defenceless: what does it mean to entrust this gesture to a place where art is an active backdrop to the structure? What kind of transformation can occur within the individual when the experience of hospitality intertwines with the creative one?
Before going to bed, you bring with you all the events that have accompanied you up to that moment. Sleeping means accompanying the planetary movement that makes the night a long part of our lives. In surrendering oneself to the nightly event, there is the continuous regeneration of one’s own strengths, both physical and intellectual. During the night, however, our brain does not stop, but works: most of the ideas that will lead to the decisions and activities of the day mature before dawn, in a psychophysical transition that occurs around 5 am. Therefore, the nightly shedding of clothes is reactive and regenerative every single night.

If the world were a hotel, who would be the guest and who would be the guardian?
In a hotel room, you assume autonomy and independence, so you are not merely a guest. You know you must abide by the rules set for the running of the hotel. The guardian is the person who respects your temporary portion of property within the place, but makes a coexistence with all the different properties possible in that context. In my opinion, a good hotel can be considered like good governance, in which a common law accepted by everyone exists, alongside an ability on the part of the guardian to accommodate the guests' autonomy to the utmost.

Every birth brings an act of welcoming: what are we truly welcoming when we bring a human being into the world?
This question immediately makes me think that the first welcoming, if we compare it to a hotel, is the family. The first hotel is precisely the family. The unborn child does not come from nothing, but descends from a DNA of which every human being is constituted, even before being born. Therefore, they are a pre-natal tourist who unconsciously finds themselves at the end of the gestational journey in the "family hotel", where they find their mother, father, brothers, sisters, and gradually the community to which they belong. And so, for me, Cittadellarte is a community that has the family as its primary reference point. On this aspect, however, it is necessary to define what its history is, in order to understand how we can host an unborn child entering the hotel of life today.