When the ecology is art: from “Recycle city” to “Beautiful city “

by Paolo Ghiga

There is no one single interpretation of the environment and eco-sustainability: this is the concept expressed by the artists, the new "messengers" of environmental sustainability, during the event on July 2nd, organised by Ecocity Onlus in the Italian town of Frascati entitled "Ecoartisti offresi I, II. Art design Environment and sustainability Networks-" there is no shortage of ritual and taboo: the new ecological guardians", and representing the result of the reflections on the material processing cycle. A result of the research on the territory of Castelli Romani which started in 2004, the project aims to involve artists such as painters, designers, craftsmen, writers and musicians who perform works and projects capable of communicating environment in terms of protection and sharing of quality of life.

Daniela Zannetti is the President of Ecocity Onlus, a professional team composed of ordinary members and partners volunteers, journalists, supporters and contributors that was born at the end of 2005 as Environmental Observatory in the Castelli Romani area and became a recognised Association in 2006. Environmental monitoring and the abandonment of waste into the environment, linked to the concept of economy of natural capital, within a community participatory environmental policy choices and awareness of the need to achieve sustainability networks codify the philosophy of this Onlus.

Ecocity believes in "eco-centric" community relations. «Each artistic discipline offers important channels of communication- Zannetti stresses -Ecocity has developed a variety of initiatives to citizenship for a shared environment. To support and spread the culture of an echo economy that includes in the calculation the ecological costs and gains, and the benefits of proper use of the vital resources of the planet, processes into eco-friendly, sustainable and responsible patterns of consumption» .

Several initiatives are proposed: from communication campaign about waste recycling and collection "Differenziare. Un gesto naturale" (Sorting waste. A natural action), the one on the recovery of biowaste and composting "CompostiAmo". Important actions with the Italian NGO Legambiente ("Puliamo il mondo", "Puliamo il buio" -“Clean the world”, Clean the dark”), events of environmental culture ("Il Pifferaio Ecomagico", "Ingombri", "Biutiful Naturando", "Ambiente in Comune", "Arte che avanza”), attention to information ("Due punti"," Ingombri").

According to Daniela Zannetti the idea of uniting art in its various meanings, an ethical policy regarding the use of the material is its «refusal of that environmental Manifesto with which Ecocity onlus began to describe their fields of a city Ecological and its "new" waste code: those of a "Recycle city", in the sphere of social awareness and communication of sculpting and Recycle; a "Beautiful City", i.e. the space of a wonderful city, where art, the environment and architecture develop imagination».
It is necessary to «give continuity to EcoArtisti project as an instrument of dialogue. The power of art to communicate and create bonds contributes to harmonization of people around a common purpose or identity, the environment, the ' man-Soziale Plastik of Joseph Beuys-is the custodian of an energy that can change the world. A tangible sign of this is its ability to modify objects. The art is no longer a museum concept, but anthropological».

The ability to interact and change the field of art, may contribute to transforming the culture of consumption: first of all, the artists, could prove guides and guardians, active elements in creating the social culture, through, for example, the interpretations proposed by Elizabetta Fazi in sculptures of "Contenuto e Contenitore" which show how nothing is lost but is part of a whole transcendent or in the case of lamps made by Marco Celidonio in "Luce" (Light), where the same concept is pure design.
Memory, moreover, has delivered the horrors of war, represented by hollow shapes of Agata Chiusano in "Riconoscimento": clothes without bodies, numbers, shapes that separate us from life.
A kaleidoscopic event at 360 °, where the figure of the artist-shaman in "Cenere", by Giorgio Galli, outlines the new guardian, the artist, who takes the call for help from a town-village, the sense of art continues Genesis, the processing necessary for a really new future, where we live in «… a city only powered with renewable energy, where all moving electric with public transport or bike, where the local market only sells fresh produce from the local area … a Ecocity, an eco village that bases its activities on the immoderate consumption of fossil fuel and not devour resources and materials at a steady pace», as the Zannetti concludes in its press release of Ecocity Onlus.

A utopia of men who protect the world which is plagued by guests are fully consciousness and aware of how you can, or you could do something to remodel the minds, to lead us towards a mature world released from the ideology of consumerism. From today we have a tool to support the environment but also the consciences and hopes of men.