2021: Cities of the Future

Within the scope of the temporary installation project of the artwork in Piazza del Duomo in Prato SHY, it fits Le Città del Futuro, a series of online meetings promoted by the Municipality of Prato e from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in Tuscany, conceived and organised by the Arte Continua Association. I webinar si terranno con cadenza mensile – per i sette mesi che l’opera di Gormley resterà installata nella piazza – ponendo al centro della discussione e tra loro in relazione tematiche quali l’arte, la tecnologia, la responsabilità sociale, la circolarità, la forestazione, la ruralizzazione e la rigenerazione urbana.

In a world that is constantly evolving but increasingly constrained by urgent ecological issues (from pollution to global warming, overpopulation, and pandemics), let's not forget that we can rely on once unimaginable technological possibilities: fast and smart connectivity, circularity, and recycling.

Starting from these considerations Le Città del Futuro It is proposed to facilitate dialogue between artists from the international community and public administrators, entrepreneurs, economists, directors of cultural institutions, urban planners, scientists, computer scientists, and other authoritative figures of our time. A series of meetings, to understand what role contemporary art can play as a stimulus and, at the same time, as a tool, to give substance to an idea of the city of the future that is socially responsible and mindful and respectful of other forms of life on the planet, sensitive to the different communities that live in it and to future generations who will be able to live and enjoy it, open to using all technologies that allow for energy saving, for all generations and for the sense and pleasure of living there.

The series of meetings will kick off on Saturday 30 January 2021. On the subject of “Industrial District” The artist Loris Cecchini, Francesco Marini, representing Confindustria Toscana Nord Association, Eliano Lodesani, Councillor of Banca Fideuram spa, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, President of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in Tuscany, and Mario Cristiani, President of the Arte Continua Association, will be participating. Benedetta Squittieri, Councillor for Economic Development of the Municipality of Prato, will moderate the meeting.

The upcoming webinars, available live on the social media channels of Città di Prato, Associazione Arte Continua, and the Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art, will take place on the last Saturday of each month. Among the speakers will be some of the most prominent figures in the contemporary art scene, including Tomas Saraceno, David Tremlett, Tobias Rehberger, Daniel Buren, and Cai Guo-Qiang. The series of talks will conclude in July with Antony Gormley, hopefully in person. The detailed programme is attached.

Art, Tradition, and Innovation
Getting Ready for the Urban Center
Public Art and Urban Regeneration
The Circular Economy
Urban Afforestation
The Industrial District

Dish It is one of the most industrialised cities in Europe, and the Municipality has always invested in finding a balance between manufacturing and the environment, and in promoting contemporary art. Today more than ever, in the aftermath of the pandemic caused by Covid 19, the public administration aims to promote local development characterised by environmental sustainability and circularity, combined with innovation and support for vulnerable groups and new generations. This is a programmatic commitment translated into the Urban Agenda 2050, which links ongoing projects with future plans, in which contemporary art has had and will continue to have an important role.

La Foundation for Contemporary Arts in Tuscany Since 2016, it has managed the Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art in Prato, the first Italian institution established with the aim of presenting, collecting, documenting and supporting artistic research in visual and performing arts, cinema, music, architecture, design, fashion and literature. From its opening in 1988 to the present day, the Pecci Centre has produced and hosted over two hundred and fifty exhibitions and exhibition projects, promoted educational initiatives for students and adults, and amassed a collection of over a thousand works mapping artistic trends from the 1960s onwards. The complex, designed by rationalist architect Italo Gamberini and expanded in 2016 by Maurice Nio, houses 3,000 sq m of exhibition spaces, an archive, the CID/Visual Arts specialist library, the auditorium-cinema, a bookshop, a restaurant, a bistro, an open-air theatre and, soon, an urban centre.

Dish It is one of the most industrialised cities in Europe, and the Municipality has always invested in finding a balance between manufacturing and the environment, and in promoting contemporary art. Today more than ever, in the aftermath of the pandemic caused by Covid 19, the public administration aims to promote local development characterised by environmental sustainability and circularity, combined with innovation and support for vulnerable groups and new generations. This is a programmatic commitment translated into the Urban Agenda 2050, which links ongoing projects with future plans, in which contemporary art has had and will continue to have an important role.

L'Arte Continua APS Cultural Association, fin dalla sua costituzione più di 30 anni fa, dialoga e realizza progetti artistici connettendo amministrazioni pubbliche e privati. Il tema città del futuro è stato sempre la missione della associazione insieme a quello di ripensare la città partendo dalle campagne e dal rapporto tra comunità internazionale del arte e le comunità locali. Della realtà di Prato – che si sta imponendo a livello internazionale per le sue pratiche economiche, ambientali e produttive virtuose, per il ripensamento degli spazi pubblici ed il ricentramento delle periferie – l’Associazione Arte Continua condivide lo spirito e le modalità e per questo si impegna in un coinvolgimento, sia teorico che pratico, volto alla realizzazione di progetti che coinvolgano la comunità intenzionale dell’arte in progetti glocal, nel rispetto dell’ambiente e della natura.