Space mirrored in art

This original piece of art, created by famous artist Michelangelo Pistoletto who is known as one of the founding fathers of the Italian Arte Povera contemporary art movement, features a full-scale representation of ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

The piece has been donated to ESA and installed at ESRIN on full display for visitors to view. Its inauguration on site took place on 28 March, with Paolo Nespoli, Head of ESRIN Josef Aschbacher and the artist in attendance, together with representatives of the Italian space agency ASI.

ESA’s Josef Aschbacher said, “We hope that many people get the chance to see this work and will have the possibility to reflect, both physically and metaphorically, on the importance of the link between art and space, and at the same time look into the eyes of a person, Paolo Nespoli, who has seen Earth from space.” 

Artist Michelangelo Pistoletto said, "The Third Paradise represents the union and the harmony of science and technique with nature and humanity. Thanks to the VITA space mission with ASI, ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli brought the meaning of the Third Paradise to reflect itself into the world."

ESA is now proactively promoting space-related art initiatives with the active involvement of artists who use space as a source of inspiration. This embraces a different way of communicating about space activities: by capitalising on its inspirational aspects.

For Paolo’s VITA mission, ASI’s third long-term mission to the International Space Station, ESA and ASI developed original ‘space and art’ initiatives as part of the communication activities to actively involve wider audiences. This began with Pistoletto’s development with ESA of the official patch of Paolo’s mission, which includes the artist’s symbol of his Third Paradise concept in the artwork.

A natural continuation of this cooperation was the ‘SPAC3’ app, which allowed users to select and combine Paolo’s images from space with their own photos. This activity was intended to draw attention to the wellbeing of our planet, and was inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. These provided the basis for Paolo’s choice of photos, and the app users could respond with their own photos on the same theme. 

As a social artwork project, SPAC3 demonstrated that the two worlds of art and science can work together with the common objective of highlighting issues affecting our planet, and showed how involving a wider public could contribute to the vision and become part of this collective work. 

This joint initiative was made possible via a partnership between ESA and RAM radioartemobile, in cooperation with ASI and Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto.