The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., curated by Carlo Ratti, draws to a close on Sunday, November 23, 2025. On this day, as part of the GENS Public Programme, the voices of the Biennale will once again question the future of architecture and emerging forms of collective intelligence. The closing panel, Intelligens Legacy: How the Exhibition Lives On, taking place at the Arsenale from 12:15 pm to 5:00 pm, will feature, among others, a talk by Michele Cerruti But, curator of the installation The Third Paradise Perspective and Academic Program Coordinator of the Accademia Unidee. His participation represents the latest chapter in a journey that, since the pre-opening days of the Biennale, has seen the Pistoletto Foundation at the forefront of a dialogue between art, architecture, and shared responsibility.

The Third Paradise Perspective: The Third Paradise opens the Biennale

Cittadellarte opened the 2025 Architecture Biennale with The Third Paradise Perspective, an installation located in the first room of the Corderie dell'Arsenale: a place of intentions, declarations, and manifestos. The public is welcomed into an immersive and visionary environment: a flooded room where the water reaches 70 cm, a projection of the sea level predicted for Venice in 2100 according to scientific studies presented in the exhibition. A walkable passageway extends through this almost dystopian scenario in the shape of the Third Paradise, a symbol created by Michelangelo Pistoletto in 2003 and which, for this Biennale, has become a physical and conceptual threshold. Indeed, the illuminated path of the work introduces the visitor to the heart of the exhibition, proposing a new balance between nature and artifice.

The installation was developed thanks to the multidisciplinary collaboration of Michelangelo Pistoletto, Paolo Naldini, Michele Cerruti But, Tiziano Guardini, Luigi Ciuffreda, and Giulia Giavatto, with the support of Lavazza Group, Pomilio Blumm, the Circolo dei Custodi di Cittadellarte, Blue & Green S.r.l., and Artemide.

As Cerruti But emphasized, curator Carlo Ratti's choice to open the Biennale with Terzo Paradiso is a clear statement: "The entire exhibition must begin with a careful look at the present and the future: from radical climate conditions to global transformations, through a concrete proposal for generative coexistence between the forces shaping the planet."

Cittadellarte in the Canon: The State of Art among the Models for the Future

The Pistoletto Foundation's presence continues within Intelligens CANON, a section curated by Carlo Ratti that brings together international examples of design capable of activating virtuous processes for contemporary architecture.

Among these, Lo Statodellarte was selected, an evolving collective work developed by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Paolo Naldini, Michele Cerruti But, Luca Bergamo, Nazarena Lanza, Alessandro Mondino, Andrea Redaelli, Ilaria Bernardi, and Niccolò Abriani. The project, grounded in Demopraxy, proposes a new form of civic-political organization that recognizes and connects communities of practice (micro-governments already active in society) to build truly participatory governance.

Cittadellarte's initiatives, from the Unidee Academy to residencies, to the global network of Rebirth/Third Paradise Embassies, are presented here as concrete tools for developing new models of collective responsibility and co-creation between art, science, business, and the local community.

IntelliGens_Demopratica: the October 21st Dialogue

On October 21, 2025, Cittadellarte hosted IntelliGens_Demopratica at the Arsenale's Speaker's Corner, a day of discussion dedicated to collective intelligence, political emotions, and new civic architecture. From 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., the program featured presentations, roundtable discussions, and testimonials from scholars, designers, artists, and researchers.

The initiative, part of the GENS Public Programme, expanded on the themes introduced by the exhibited works, bringing together artistic practices and innovative governance models. As Director Paolo Naldini noted, "Cittadellarte's founding manifesto, the 1994 Manifesto Progetto Arte, already envisioned collective intelligence as the generative matrix of future society, capable of connecting every sector of human activity through the trinamic formula 1+1=3."

Towards the Close of the Biennale: The Pistoletto Foundation's Voice in the International Debate

Michele Cerruti But's contribution to the conference Intelligens Legacy: How the Exhibition Lives On is part of a program featuring internationally renowned figures, including Mark Wigley, Beatriz Colomina, Benedetta Tagliabue, Vicente Guallart, and Carlo Ratti himself, who are engaged in drawing up a shared assessment of the five months of the Biennale.

The presence of the coordinator of the The Unidee Academy confirms Cittadellarte's role as a point of reference in the debate on the relationships between natural, artificial, and collective intelligence, climate emergencies, emerging forms of community and co-creation, and the political potential of art in transforming society.

A Biennale that continues beyond Venice

The Pistoletto Foundation's participation, from the symbolic opening with The Third Paradise Perspective, to its presence in the Canon, to the dialogue with IntelliGens_Demopratica and the closing speech by Cerruti But, conveys a unified vision: art as a generative practice capable of impacting social, political, and environmental systems.

The Biennale ends, but the trajectories it has initiated—between research, communities, institutions, businesses, and territories—continue beyond Venice. And it is precisely this continuity that the focus of November 23rd will be on: a moment to reflect on how the legacy of the 2025 edition can translate into new possibilities for concrete change.