The Free Space
Conceived 1976 / fabricated 2020
Spazio Libero (The Free Space) was born when I was asked to do a work of art with incarcerated persons in San Vittore in 1999, a prison in Milan. I gave them the drawings and everything and said, “Now you will make a cage that will be free space.” It was made inside the jail that is already a cage, where everyone feels deprived of their liberty. We assume that there is freedom outside the jail. I created for them a free space within the jail—a mental space, a behavioral space, a virtual space that implies the concept of freedom of thought, which is the truest possession of freedom. Even in situations where you are inside a cage—like those of a concentration camp—the only thing that you have is the freedom of your thoughts, which nobody can take away from you. That is true inner freedom.
—Michelangelo Pistoletto
MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO
The Free Space
Conceived 1976 / fabricated 2020
110 1/4 x 141 3/4 x 141 3/4 inches (280 x 360 x 360 cm)