The Third Paradise
How an art group in Havana approaches placemaking through the lens of Paradise.
The Third Paradise, or Terzo Paradiso in Italian, or Tercer Paraíso in Spanish, is a global body established by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto in 2003. The organisation is represented all around the world, with ambassadors championing the Third Paradise principles of ‘Demopraxis’ and ‘Rebirth’. The group’s central goal is to positively impact the places in which they operate.
Patricia Diaz Gomez, one of the coordinators of the Third Paradise embassy in Havana met with me to explain how the group is changing her city.
Tell me a little bit about your background, and how you came to get involved with the Third Paradise.
In Havana, the Third Paradise is represented by four ladies – me, Claudia Gonzalez Machado, Laura Salas Redondo, and Mavis de la Colina who runs our communications. It seems like a big coincidence, but me, Laura and Claudia all studied History of Art, all at different times.
But actually, it is no coincidence. For me, my studies changed my view of art. It showed me that art is most meaningful when the people who are making it have a real purpose or meaning. It is about the process as well as the end product.
At the Third Paradise in Havana, our main goal is to connect with people who are doing meaningful things in art and creativity.
Where did the name, ‘Third Paradise’, come from? What is the organisation all about?
This is an idea that came from our founder, Pistoletto. It is the idea that there are three paradises: the first is the original paradise, where humans lived in harmony with nature. The second is the artificial paradise, where we are now, where humans rely on artificial products and pleasures in an unsustainable way. Finally there’s the Third Paradise, where we each take personal responsibility for our global vision.
The Third Paradise is the one we’re hoping to build.
How does this work in practice?
One of the main things that we do is run our annual Rebirth Forum. This takes place in November each year, and every year we invite artists, sociologists, architects, politicians and members of the community to participate.
It’s a great coming together of creative ideas and actions. Every year has a theme, for example one year the theme was food, last year was plastic. In 2020, we chose resilience and mobility, because we wanted to talk about the ways that the pandemic has impacted the city.
Getting people from all levels of the community involved is part of our belief in ‘demopraxis’.
So what exactly do you mean by ‘demopraxis’?
Demopraxis is a deliberate play on words. The traditional word, ‘democratic’, comes from the Greek word for people, ‘demos’, and the Greek word for power or government, ‘kratos’. With the Third Paradise, we swap the word for power with the word for practice, ‘praxis’.
We use this word because participation and action are essential in what we do. We want everybody to be involved with creating solutions for their homes and cities. We can view the Rebirth Forums as a way to connect the decision-makers with people in the community. It is a process of demopraxis.
How is the work that you do in Havana different from other Third Paradise embassies around the world?
Every embassy is different, because we all create programmes that are unique to our cities’ challenges. Havana is very different from other cities, so the work we do is very different.
In Havana, there is a lot of creativity, and a unique relationship between the private and public sector. It means that we have a high level of engagement from the community, and society is already structured in a way that allows neighbourhoods to benefit. We were the first embassy to run a Forum, and there’s a strong link between the Forums and Cuba’s Sustainable Development Goals.
At the Third Paradise, we are not involved with politics, but we are involved with society. The work that we do is to find ways of investing in neighbourhoods and communities, aligned with what Cuba really needs. The work is creative in its nature.
Apart from working towards the next Rebirth Forum, what other work is the Third Paradise doing right now?
A lot of our work is collaborative with other projects and programmes in the city. It’s important to us to build our network, and make sure we have contacts in the community we’re working in. We don’t just go in and tell people what to do.
For example, we’ve done work supporting the Akokán project, helping with murals and public art in Los Pocitos. We also work with a gallery, Galleria Continua, to promote local art and provide a place for the community to come. At the weekend, we’re hosting a workshop for children to come and create their own art in the gallery.
Also this weekend, we’re helping with the annual River Festival. For this we’re collaborating with the student organisation, the Green Network, to clear up the river and then do something creative with the recycling. Last year we made benches from the bottles we collected. There is a lot of clearing up to do, so the festival is symbolic as well as practical: we are members of the community, helping to shape our city and its future.
