During the Festivaletteratura held in Mantua from 3 to 7 September 2025, Michelangelo Pistoletto recalled his encounter with Ileana Sonnabend, an extraordinary patroness who helped to make the work of the Italian artist known beyond national borders

On Friday 5 September 2025, the audience at the Festivaletteratura in Mantua had the opportunity to attend a dialogue between the famous artist Michelangelo Pistoletto and the physicist Guido Tonelli – author of the book Eleganza del vuoto (Elegance of emptiness) – moderated by Mario Codognato, artistic director of the Sonnabend Collection in Mantua, which will open its doors on 29 November in the Palazzo della Ragione.
Entitled Un’anima nascosta tra arte e scienza (A hidden soul between art and science), the meeting was not only an occasion to reflect on the concept of emptiness and the link between the artistic and scientific worlds, but also provided an outlook on the influence that Ileana Sonnabend had on Pistoletto’s international career. It was the artist himself who commented on that decisive turning point in his creative career, looking forward with enthusiasm to the inauguration of the museum in Mantua dedicated to the Sonnabend Collection.
Here is what he told us.

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Video credit: Zampediverse