Image: Reggia di Monza, Monza
The Reggia di Monza is presenting ‘UR-RA – Unity of Religions – Responsibility of Art’, a major anthological exhibition of Michelangelo Pistoletto curated by Francesco Monico, on view at the Villa Reale in Monza from 1 November 2025 until 31 October 2026. The project is promoted and produced by the Consorzio Villa Reale e Parco di Monza together with Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto. It gathers works spanning from 1957 to the present, and the venue says the show was conceived specifically for the historic rooms of the residence, designed in the late eighteenth century by Giuseppe Piermarini for Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg, son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.
According to the Reggia di Monza, the exhibition places Pistoletto’s practice in dialogue with spirituality and interreligious understanding. It marks twenty-five years since the artist’s ‘Lieu de recueillement et prière’ at the Paoli-Calmettes oncology institute in Marseille, which brought the major religions together in a single space, and the venue frames art here as a language capable of encouraging harmony, peaceful coexistence and mutual understanding among different cultures and faiths, against the background of Pistoletto’s idea of Preventive Peace.
The exhibition centres on Pistoletto as a key figure of Arte Povera and the artist behind the ‘Quadri specchianti’. It includes well-known works such as ‘La Venere degli stracci’ and the project ‘Il Terzo Paradiso’, alongside early paintings and later works in which spirituality is more explicitly expressed. The presentation is structured as a multidimensional experience that brings together art, religion and public reflection.
The Reggia’s presentation also situates the project within the architecture and history of the Villa Reale, part of the European Royal Residences network. The institution says the route begins in the Avancorte, where flags representing the religions accompany visitors, and opens in the octagonal Atrio degli Staffieri with ‘La Pietra dell’infinito’ and ‘Tavola interreligiosa per la pace preventiva’, a reworking of the ‘Metro Cubo d’infinito’ from the Oggetti in meno group of 1965–66. It then continues through the first-floor noble rooms.
Among the works listed for the route are ‘Il Sacerdote’, ‘Tempio’, ‘Annunciazione’, ‘Le trombe del Giudizio’, ‘Tempio a Dondolo’, ‘La rotazione dello specchio’, ‘Il codice trinamico’ and ‘Arco spirituale’. The route culminates in the Giardini Reali, where a new ‘Terzo Paradiso’ will be installed, composed of one hundred benches made entirely from recycled and recyclable material.
The programme surrounding the exhibition includes four international conferences, on medicine, care and spirituality; finance, economy and spirituality; poetry, literature and spirituality; and education, knowledge and spirituality. The venue says one stated aim of the project is the signing of the ‘Carta di Monza per l’Interreligiosità’, a document intended to strengthen cooperation among Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions as well as secular culture.
On its summer schedule, running from 1 June to 30 September, the Villa Reale opens Wednesday to Friday from 14.30 to 19.30 (last admission 18.30) and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10.30 to 18.30 (last admission 17.30); tickets are 15 euros full price and 12 euros reduced. The museum’s summer newsletter confirms that visits continue throughout August and that the Pistoletto exhibition remains on view until 31 October 2026.
