Oct. 17 - "We live in a historic transition that has no precedent, the scientific and technological progress is offset by a consumption pattern that weathers the planet. A new world vision is needed and we can find one in the commitment to art and culture of the Italian Renaissance. I think that art can inspire current sentiments and practices, which open new avenues. The Praemium Imperiale has an ever more significant value when it recognizes the aesthetics and artistic ethics’ primary role in society," said the Italian painter Michelangelo Pistoletto, who received the Praemium Imperiale in Tokyo 2013. The Italian artist stood on the stage alongside the British artists Antony Gormley, who received his award for his sculptures, and David Chipperfield, for his architecture, the Spanish Plácido Domingo for his music and the American director Francis Ford Coppola for his cinema. The JuniOrchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, founded in 2006 by prof. Bruno Cagli, president of the Academy, also received a scholarship for young artists. "The efforts to foster cultural and artistic activities and the universal language of the arts enhances mutual understanding among people, thereby strengthening peace in the world ," said former prime minister Lamberto Dini during the toast in Tokyo. On September 17 in Rome, Dini announced the winners of the Young Artists awards. Each of the five winners received a prize of 15 million yen (about €117,000), a diploma and a medal conferred by the honorary patron of the Japan Art Association, Prince Hitachi, during a ceremony. This year, on the occasion of the 25th Praemium Imperiale, the award ceremony was preceded by a special hearing in the presence of the Emperor and Empress of Japan. A traditional banquet followed, attended by the Prince and Princess Hitachi, some of the winners of the past editions, including sculptor Cecco Bonanotte, and about 300 members of the political scene, the arts, and business.

MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO
An organizer and a leading member of the "Arte Povera" movement in Italy, Michelangelo Pistoletto achieved international fame thanks to his "Quadri Specchiati," figures painted on sheets of a polished stainless steel mirror. Born in Biella in a family of artists, he began paying attention to the space around him by painting a self-portrait with the aid of a mirror. This sense of external spaces came to life in his " Quadri Specchiati, " in which the mirror reflects what is around him and the viewer as part of the artwork. In his unique works past and present and the two-dimensional world and the three-dimensional space are juxtaposed producing the fourth dimension (time). In 1998, Pistoletto opened in Biella in a former woolen mill the Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, an experimental institution created to encourage interaction between art and various social activities. Pistoletto continues with determination to promote social development based on artistic creativity. His works are today an essential item in the panorama of modern art, so much so that last April, the Louvre inaugurated a grand Pistoletto retrospective.