Arte per la riforestazione

Cities of the Future

An urban reforestation project designed by Mario Cristiani and organised by Associazione Arte Continua in collaboration with the municipality of Pratocommissioned from Professor Stefano Mancuso e PNAT.

"Art as oxygen for the mind, trees as oxygen for the body.... and vice versa".
Mario Cristiani

Contemporary art becomes oxygen for the mind while plants give oxygen to the body, triggering a virtuous circle between art and nature: this is the idea behind the reforestation project supported by the Associazione Arte Continua in the context of Prato Forest City, commissioned to Stefano Mancuso and PNAT in collaboration with the Municipality of Prato.

Continuous Art Association, thanks to the funds raised between May and June 2022 through joint auction and private treaty at Pandolfini auction house, with contemporary artworks donated in support of the initiative by more than 15 artists from the international art community, supports the creation of a green lung directly connected to the working-class neighbourhoods in the Tobbiana-Allende area of Prato.

The planting of the first tree in the Neophyte Forest, the result of the project, took place on 4 October 2023 at 17:30day dedicated to the celebration of St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of Italy, unsurpassed model of a balanced relationship between Man and Nature.

The park was inaugurated Wednesday 29 May at 18.30 creating a green area with more than 150 deciduous and evergreen plants and over 400 shrubs, all chosen by Professor Mancuso on the basis of their origin from different parts of the world and now part of the visual landscape in our country. The park, located near a nucleus of residential housing public in the Tobbiana Allende district of Prato, covers an area of 7,500 square metres and is located in an area particularly prone to pollution. Therefore, we would like it to be a green lung capable of returning public space and contact with nature to the community, but also of absorbing 3,000 kg of CO2 per year and reducing fine particulate matter due to the intense traffic in the area.

An olive tree from the Gardens of the Papal Villas in Castel Gandolfo donated by the Vatican's Laudato Si' Centre for Higher Education was also planted on 29 May, further emphasising the fundamental role of art in providing support to the fragile part of the community.

The young plants have therefore been placed in what was an area that had been undervalued but which, thanks to this project, will become tree-lined and reclaimed, once again becoming usable not only by the inhabitants of the area but by the entire community.

Download the Press Release of the 29 May 2024 event.

Download the Press Release of the 4 October 2023 event.

In the park, along with the plants you will find Totems narrating donated works, who are the donor artistsbut also which plants were planted.

Artists

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KUNST VOOR AUTISME

To continue this project you can continue to donate, every contribution will be invested in Reforestation and an art education project!

Thanks to the reputation and relationships with the international art system that Associazione Arte Continua has established in over 30 years of activity, 33 artworks were auctioned from 16 May to 13 June 2022. The auction took place online at Pandolfini Auction House.

The auction ended with an excellent result; lots were sold including graphics, with multiples such as silkscreens and lithographs, and unique pieces generously donated for the reforestation project by Per Barclay, Massimo Bartolini, Loris Cecchini, Alberto Garutti, Carsten Höller, LABINAC (Maria Thereza Alves and Jimmie Durham), Cildo Meireles, Giovanni Ozzola, Tobias Rehberger, Kiki Smith, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Nari Ward. Also going up for auction, together with the prints, were the wine boxes made on the occasion of Arte x Vino = Acqua, donated by Mario Cristiani.

The funds raised by Associazione Arte Continua, thanks to the collaboration with Pandolfini Casa d'Aste, concretely support the reforestation intervention in the area's working-class neighbourhoods Tobbiana-Allende di Pratoa wooded area capable of fixing 3,000 kg of CO2 per year and cutting down fine dust particles from the area's heavy traffic, while at the same time offering the neighbourhood's inhabitants a green space to relax in contact with nature. The initiative plans to achieve these results through the planting of around 150 trees of different species.

Associazione Arte Continua thanks first of all all the artists who generously donated their works to support the project. Thanks also to the Municipality of Prato, Stefano Mancuso and Pandolfini Casa d'Aste for participating in this important charity initiative. The greatest thanks to all those who supported this project, purchasing a work of art that will become pure oxygen.

We also made a series of new totems who will tell about the works of art that made this project possible and talk about the importance of the synergy that must exist between art and nature.

Projects

Credits