Pistoletto’s Third Paradise is one of the most interesting experiences you will have at the 2025 Venice Biennale

The installation by Fondazione Pistoletto and Transsolar, supported by Lavazza, introduces the 2025 Architecture Biennale curated by Carlo Ratti. It makes one perceive the tragedy of the present and possible “cures”.

The first episode that opens Carlo Ratti’s Biennale – specifically, the curatorial statement-path at the Arsenale – is an experience, perhaps the only truly physical experience that visitors can have as they walk through the long Corderie. Suddenly everything is dark and humid; it’s unbearably hot. Soon, you realize you’re following curving, predetermined paths amid raised pools of water. The heat is generated by dozens of external air conditioning units. The only light comes from three arches, which, once reflected in the water, form a familiar symbol: that of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Third Paradise, the Terzo Paradiso.

The Third Paradise Perspective. Photo Riccardo Banfi

“The Third Paradise Perspective”, presented by the Fondazione Pistoletto Cittadellarte, is meant to evoke the sea level Venice will face in 2100. It intertwines this message with climate responsibility through the presence of air conditioners installed by Transsolar. But it also offers a new reading of the Third Paradise concept, this time with a perspective-based, proactive approach, serving as an introduction to a Biennale filled with proposals. Since its conception over twenty years ago, the symbol represents the harmonization of natural and artificial paradises in a new balance. “The ritual brings the myth to life,” quotes Paolo Naldini – curator of the installation along with Pistoletto, Michele Cerruti But, Tiziano Guardini, Luigi Ciuffreda, and Giulia Giavatto. “The symbol is the myth of a new civilization,” Naldini continues, “no longer linear, no longer extractive, but co-generative of resources – that central circle where we can recognize ourselves, and where nature and artificiality coexist in full interpenetration. But how can this be brought into the realms of architecture, design, business, and community? It must be ritualized, and ritualization can happen through the practices we see displayed in the Corderie”.

The Third Paradise Perspective. Photo Riccardo Banfi

Being on the “wrong” side of the air conditioners – which instead cool the next room – those entering the Arsenale live the tragedy of contemporary conditions, a commentary on the multiple Souths of an increasingly unequal world. “That’s where our proposal emerges,” Naldini tells us. “We have the formula to get out of the tragedy: a universal form that arises from observing the city. We call it trinamics, the dynamics of three,” a practical application “of dynamic equilibrium between opposites, the conjunction of natural intelligence and artificial intelligence,” whose core structure is a useful form of art – new, and at times uncomfortable, in its agency.

It is this recognition of art’s role that earned the project a supporter like Lavazza Group. As board member Francesca Lavazza told us, “it was important that this Third Paradise be envisioned in an original way once again. In fact, this is a perspective of the Third Paradise.” A perspective articulated in three themes: “...sustainability, particularly Sustainable Development Goal number 13 on climate change, which engages us in actions related to natural elements, coffee production, and water.” Then there’s a city like Venice, whose relationship with water defines its very existence – a subject Lavazza has explored in previous Art Biennales. And finally, there’s the idea of creating a place – this path – activating an actual physical perception.

Francesca Lavazza. Courtesy Lavazza

“It was truly a project we couldn’t ignore,” Lavazza continued. A project born from a shared vision with curator Carlo Ratti, with a Biennale that is “a technological world, but one that supports nature.” As it introduces us to this world, the installation leads us straight to another space where you can finally “breathe and say, ‘I feel better.’ But how can I avoid ending up where I was before? There are many solutions, and that’s what sets this Biennale apart from others: it’s an exhibition of solutions”. An exhibition where the Third Paradise ultimately gives the opening note – like a tuning fork, as Naldini would say – toward a vision of hope. “The themes are enormous, impactful, and imminent,” Lavazza tells us, “but we remain proactive and positive: an exchange, a working process with art on sustainability projects, combining architecture and design – much like what we do with the art of blending.”

Canal Café. Photo Marco Zorzanello. Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

And you could say Lavazza has done that literally: at the 2025 Architecture Biennale, the group also chose to support Canal Café, the hybrid (natural-artificial) phytoremediation water project developed by a team including Diller Scofidio + Renfro, chef Davide Oldani, critic Aaron Betsky, and experts from Natural Systems Utilities and Sodai. Using the provocative idea of making coffee with canal water, the project sparked an innovative conversation about freshwater use and won the Golden Lion at this 19th edition of the Venetian show.

The Third Paradise Perspective, Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 Photo Marco Zorzanello. Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

The Third Paradise Perspective, Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 Photo Marco Zorzanello. Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

The Third Paradise Perspective, Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 Photo Riccardo Banfi. Courtesy Lavazza

Canal Café, Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 Foto Marco Zorzanello. Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

Canal Café, Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 Photo Marco Zorzanello. Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia

Francesca Lavazza at Canal Café Courtesy Lavazza