La Soglia by Michelangelo Pistoletto dwells on reflection and perception at Continua

Galleria Continua presents La Soglia, a new solo exhibition by Michelangelo Pistoletto, on view from September 20, 2025 – January 7, 2026, at their San Gimignano outpost in Italy. For more than six decades, Pistoletto has interrogated the relationship between art and life, urging viewers to move beyond passive observation and instead enter the work—literally and conceptually—through his iconic use of mirrors. “Staying true to the artist’s signature element, the mirror, the exhibition features a series of both new and recent works that highlight an ongoing, evolving investigation,” notes Galleria Continua in the official press release.

La Soglia brings together a group of works created in 2025 that deepen the Italian artist’s ongoing project Divisione e moltiplicazione dello specchio – L’arte assume la religione, initiated in 1978. In this new phase, Pistoletto pushes the investigation into the space between the real and the virtual, between flatness and volume, and crucially, the shifting role of the spectator. “In these pieces, a real object—frames or stretchers in triangular, rectangular or Segno Arte shapes is applied to a mirror; the perception of the object changes according to the observer’s point of view, in relation to the reflection and the surrounding space,” explains the contemporary art gallery. The mirror does more than complete what is absent: it becomes a device for heightened awareness, prompting viewers to question their own place within the visual field and in the world around them.

The conceptual foundation of the contemporary artist’s practice rests on a deceptively simple premise: a mirror can reflect anything except itself. Yet, when divided and reconfigured—one half sliding along the axis of the cut—its reflective capacity multiplies, generating a potentially infinite perspective. “This phenomenon underpins much of Pistoletto’s work and thought, with the principle of division serving as a universal foundation for organic growth and, on a social level, as an alternative logic to accumulation and exclusion,” continues the gallery.

Complementing these works is the series Black and Light, which introduces a striking spatial and perceptual shift. Installed in the corners of the art gallery, the divided mirrors animate the entire surface of the room, producing oscillating reflections that explore the tension between luminosity and obscurity within the mirrored image. The art exhibition also features Uno specchio rotto (2025), an installation in San Gimignano in which fragments of framed mirrors are arranged on the wall in overlapping constellations. The composition recalls Pistoletto’s 1981 Il disegno dello specchio, where mirrors, some intact, some divided, were cut to precise geometries. In contrast, the jagged contours and irregular edges of the new work evoke a gesture of breaking or crushing. “This contrast underscores the temporal distance between the two works and highlights the evolution of Pistoletto’s practice within the long-running line of inquiry that began in 1978 with Divisione e moltiplicazione dello specchio - L’arte assume la religione,” the gallery notes.