In Arles, the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto emerges into the Zen universe of Lee Ufan

Bringing them together was not at all obvious; moreover, the two artists had never met. Yet, the dialogue works, creating a myriad of reflections and reflections between their works. Michelangelo Pistoletto and Lee Ufan have in common that they were both born in the 1930s, in very different contexts, that they were founding artists of an artistic movement in the 1960s, Arte Povera for the former and Mono-ha for the latter, and that they are still very active, at 92 years old for the Italian, and 89 years old for the South Korean. The meeting took place this July, in the setting of the former Arlesian mansion that Lee Ufan has converted to permanently host a journey through his work, and temporary exhibitions resonating with his work.

Invited to occupy the top floor of the building, Michelangelo Pistoletto presents a selection of recent and historical works, which begins with a few forays into the rooms dedicated to the host of the place, in dialogue. On the ground floor, at the bottom of the central staircase, an Etruscan orator, a life-size bronze sculpture, stands facing a large mirror, which he touches with his index finger while looking at his reflection. The work, which dates from 1976, invites space, the human figure, history, and the present time into the representation in a simple but spectacular way. The fixed image becomes mobile through the presence of the viewer, and the mirror abolishes the boundary between art and life.

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