eARTh – Creativity & Sustainability

The XIth Florence Biennale aims at contributing to envision a future in which creativity and sustainability are inspiring principles of an artistic and cultural ‘ecosystem’ within a world that is respectful of nature and life forms on Earth. In this perspective cultural diversity and biodiversity do not exist in separate and parallel realms, but are part of a kind of co-evolutionary process that needs to be preserved and nurtured.

Artists as well as creative and cultural industries, including therein museums, art galleries, artist-run societies, schools, publishers, and other organisations, can play a key role in the realisation of such a process, which entails many aspects – from education and talent and skills development to equality issues, from cross-disciplinarity and cross-culturalism to the value of all cultural identities and local traditions and, not least, the preservation of world heritage, whether cultural or natural, through programs of conservation and sustainable development.

Since two decades the Florence Biennale has gathered artists from around the world in the ‘cradle of the Renaissance’ to participate to a contemporary art event that every two years has been attended not only by those who make art, but also by hundreds of people who teach, learn, promote, market, collect or otherwise consume, and enjoy art. The sponsors that have allowed many artists to participate to this international contemporary art exhibition shows that the work of an

artist can harness with that of organisations from different countries engaged in a wide range of activities – from the production of eco-friendly materials to land reclaiming and recycling projects, from the sustainable growth of organic produces to fair trade and manufacturing processes respectful of human rights. Such a synergy ultimately means integrating creative, societal, environmental, and economic needs within a conceptual framework envisioning art and culture as resources for innovative approaches aimed at pursuing sustainable development goals in harmony with nature.