“Migrant” ideas for a rising-up progress

by Anna de Polo

When art becomes a mean to communicate the environment and the environment becomes a source of inspiration for art, then the result is always winning, especially in a country like Italy, where, despite everything, the marriage of art and nature and of culture and territory results in a language that everyone seems to understand. The possibility to reach the ordinary citizen and touch its sensitivity is what science needs to get out of books and laboratories and lead to a real progress of the society. This is the ultimate goal of environmental communication. For this reason, every initiative that moves in this direction, whether large or small, deserves to be divulged.

There are many such events planned for the coming months. One of them is “Il Paese dei Nidi” (The Country of the nests), a "migrant project" which aims to promote environmental protection in a really unusual and creative way. Essential modules of bird houses, made by LIPU, were given to artists active in Piemonte to be customized and transformed into works of art. The result is twenty-nine "Bird Box of Author" which will be displayed in an itinerant exhibition in different locations across Italy. The first appointment was in Calosso, Monferrato, from May 21 to June 19. The exhibition moved then to Favara (Agrigento), to the Castle of Racconigi (Cuneo) and finally on the hillside overlooking the Lake of Orta, Ameno (Novara). Each event will be enriched by readings, sound installations and multi-disciplinary conversations, in a regular dialogue between scientific approach and artistic and creative approach, «In the belief that art -as noted by Patrizia Rossello, creator of the project- could trigger a process of change in society».

The same principle is at the basis of Riciclarti 2011 – Cantiere Arte Ambientale, a festival now in its fourth edition, which compares the contemporary visual art with the politics of environmental sustainability. Curated by Marisa Merlin and promoted by the cultural association Arteria, the exhibition displayed works of art and design selected by a panel of experts in a charming location, the Ex Macello of via Cornaro, in Padova, from May 27 to June 26.

Both initiatives use art as a tool to communicate and raise awareness, addressing the need to make newer and more appealing the concepts of environmental protection and of development of more conscious and sustainable individual and social practices. This is particularly important in a society such as ours, where the abundance of information that reach us every day makes us addicted to everything and in which the risk that the messages, although alarming, about the health of our planet will soon become stale. The indifference of the citizen is the best ground for moral and intellectual stagnation that in the long run can slow down the progress of society.