Trento celebrated the full circle return of its native son, Stefano Cagol, with a mid-career retrospective at Galleria Civica MART after igniting Europe’s Kundalini with The Body of Energy.

Arriving for the 24 March bellissima inaugurazionewas all of Trentino…
From left to right: Mart Director Gianfranco Maraniello, Culture Councillor for the municipality of Trento Andrea Robol, curator Margherita de Pilati, artist Stefano Cagol and curator Denis Isaia.
…and beyond.
From left to right: Collector Giancarlo Longo, Stefano Cagol and Giacomo Nicolodi, Global VIP PR Manager for Diesel.

It turned into a spring celebration of renewal for Italian contemporary art originating in the alpine city that historically united the secular and religious with its succession of bishop princes.

Considering that Trento was named by the Romans for its three mountains (Tre-denti=three teeth), the number three is important in the oeuvre of the city’s outstanding native artist…

The rebirth taking place here is the paradigm shift. This means the determinist dualism of linear time transmutes into the Third, the magic of Kairos.
And there is a good deal of magic in the oeuvre of Trento’s native son.


Under a portentous 2016 eclipse cycle culminating with Easter, the paradigm shift evident in the U.S. Election cycle was on view in the two decades of Stefano Cagol’s journey to transform dualism through the alchemical reaction of his materials.

That Cagol’s 1995-2015 mid-career retrospective was put together in a matter of months following the culmination of his Body of Energy project in Berlin–that took him from the fjords of northern Norway to Gilbralter–was something of an Easter miracle in itself…

…and a cause for celebration in the magnifici palazzi of Trento.

Lisa Paul Streitfeld is a philospher and critic based in Berlin who traveled the globe in search of artist’s evoking the new paradigm in their materials.
All photos by LPS unless otherwise stated. All photos used with permisson of the artist.
Stephano Cagol’s next “Body of Energy” performance will be in Stadtgalerie Chur from 5-13 May fro 2 to 6 pm. For more information go to: http://www.thebodyofenergy.com