The ability to generate empathy is one of the key elements of human creativity. Art and other forms of cultural expressions are increasingly socially and environmentally responsible. Fashion, architecture, design and visual arts are in pole position to trigger the debate on various aspects of Sustainability. MONACŒCOART® has confronted five artists who participated in the recent Monte-Carlo International Art Biennale by La Telaccia by Malinpensa Art Gallery to deepen their co-friendly vision of art.
Antonio Salinari (A.S.)
Award Winner in the category "Nature of Tomorrow"
🎨 Piccola Utopia (Little Utopia)
👤Bio >> Graduated in engineering at the Politecnico di Torino (Polytechnic of Turin), he acted as manager for leading multinational companies in the field of information technology. In 2006, he started rediscovering his old passions, notably rawing, sculpture, furniture design and photography, in the footsteps of Franco Alessandria, inspired by Richard Sennett's theories.
MONACŒCOART®: What inspired your work?
A.S.: Piccola Utopia (Little Utopia) represents a child planting a tree. The core idea of this sculpture refers directly to nature preservation and social inclusion, involving both active participation. Not by chance, the sculpture was made of valuable wood dowels coming from historic buildings set in Piedmont. They are therefore the metaphor of various ethnicity according to the part of the world they originate.
In particular, I imagined that a significant change is needed in order to enjoy nature in the future. Then, Human beings always keep their childish spirit in line with nature. Their survival depends on their being special, inclusive and capable of interacting. "The Nature of Tomorrow" requires "The Man of Tomorrow".
MONACŒCOART®: What do you want to convey to the public?
A.S.: I do believe that contemporary art has exhausted its power to amaze through tautologies of reality or provocations and must return to be useful, that is inspiring the public positivity, accessibility while pushing them to act. I would like to give life to a proactive thought, maybe quite utopian but universal as the naive gesture of the child able to bring us back into harmony with the natural world.
MONACŒCOART®: What can art do for the environment?
A.S.: I am convinced that art can strengthen environmental communication through the construction of an imaginary where the citizen is the architect of his own future and the future of the Planet. This tool values and stimulates the contribution of individuals, creating a virtuous circle through a constructive approach involving necessarily joined forces and experiences.
Dealing with current uncertainties due to social, economic and cultural criticalities, it is essential to work on innovative visions, trying to identify possible changes. Art plays a pivotal role provided that it gives birth to a design between past and future. ***
Daniela Rosso aka Prin (D.R.)
🎨Il Terzo Paradiso (The Third Paradise)
👤Bio >> Daniela Rosso, aka Prin, approaches art by chance, gaining prestigious recognition under the guidance of Dino Pasquero, international artist. She is fond of using different painting techniques through a clever use of colours forging meaningful themes.
MONACŒCOART®: What inspired your work?
D.R.: My work of art draws inspiration from the need to find harmony between man and nature. Nature once ruled unchallenged in the first paradise, the pristine Eden,
then Human Beings created his own artificial 'paradise' seeking to subject Nature to their own desires and needs. In the Third Paradise, Nature takes its place entering in contact with human crafts harmoniously without supplanting them, but merging the two realities to evolve towards the ideal union.
MONACŒCOART®: What do you want to convey to the public?
D.R.: The work deliberately lends itself to a couple of interpretations, both non-exhaustive, depicting the Human outcome that incorporates Nature desperately looking for greenery or Wildlife itself that attacks Human work in a dystopian and apocalyptic vision.
MONACŒCOART®: What can art do for the environment?
D.R.: I think it can inspire good vibes. My vision is optimistic willing to harmonise the two opposites (Nature and Human sides) by merging them into an ideal "paradise" of mutual respect. Since the 2021 biennale, I have been giving my small contribution to convey awareness of environmental issues, hoping to foster our survival on planet earth. ***
Davide Tornielli (D.T.)
🎨 Chiaro di Luna (Moonlight)
👤Bio >> With an innate passion for art started more than forty years ago, the art production by Davide Tornielli goes far beyond technical rendering and chromatic lyricism to enhance meaningful values and contents.
MONACŒCOART®: What inspired your work?
D.T.: My work of art is inspired by the experience of some trips to the enchanting Far East where Spirituality and Nature still blend in a preponderant way.
MONACŒCOART®: What do you want to convey to the public?
D.T.: The meaning of my art passes through a pictorial reality more interior than external, where the introspection of nature, absolute protagonist, comes alive in a deep psychological analysis that becomes the true sense of my painting. In particular, it recalls me my journey to Malaysia, based in an amazing island within the South China Sea. I could admire a unique natural moonlight's refraction on the ocean waves. It was so bright to give life to a succession of silver layers creating surreal effect between sky and sea.
MONACŒCOART®: What can art do for the environment?
D.T.: Being inspired by the natural world means feeling and expressing the full essence of Nature, through the use of various materials, the pulsating force of colour and the incisive mark of the spatula while operating on the canvas.***
Paola Arrigoni (P.A.) Award Winner in the category "Nature of Tomorrow"
🎨 Il Mare, Voce di una Grandezza Libera (The Sea, Voice of a Free Greatness).
👤Bio >> Her passion for art was born occasionally. Her paintings are mainly abstract resulting from the use of acrylic on canvas or wood, combined with recycled materials to reinforce her efforts against environmental degradation. Her main scope to convey a deep message of respect for life and the environment.
MONACŒCOART®: What inspired your work?
P.A.: This work is my representation of the power of the Sea that has no limits, full of freedom in every wave, like life. The sea reconnects us with ourselves and with Nature. Not by chance the title is directly inspired by the poetic words of a poem by Giuseppe Ungaretti (note: paramount Italian poet, writer, translator and journalist).
MONACŒCOART®: What do you want to convey to the public?
P.A.: Please, do not fear the storm because it allows you to revolutionise your life. The recycling of materials allows me to develop a constantly evolving experimentation to represent and transform the reality and my emotions.
MONACŒCOART®: What can art do for the environment?
P.A.: It allows us getting excited. I suffer while witnessing environmental degradation. Through my artistic creation, I try to arouse a smutual interaction with the observer to make them reflect and establish introspections to preserve life and environment. ***
Photos >> Il Mare che non sfama (The Sea that does not feed ) by Riccardo Bedini (Metropole Hotel, 9th June 2023) © Maurice Abbati MonacoEcoArt.com
Riccardo Bedini aka Rico (R.B.)
Award Winner in the category "Nature of Tomorrow"
🎨 Il Mare che non sfama (The Sea that does not feed)
👤Bio >> He operates in his homeland (Marche, Italy) an inspiring territory close the Adriatic coast, framed between the sky and the sea & land, where the blues melt in Nature. Following the succession of tides, the sculptor forges objects of lost time, returning them to the Earth.
MONACŒCOART®: What inspired your work?
R.B.: My work is inspired by the place where I have always lived, close to the sea. Thus, I could touch with hand, year after year, its continuous change. As a child, I was able to come back home full of seafood caught by me on site. Nowadays, my children do not have the same luck.
MONACŒCOART®: What do you want to convey to the public?
R.B.: I am willing to launch an S.O.S that comes from the sea; I want it to come loud and clear to everyone: to citizens increasingly distracted, to people superficial and not sensitive to the problem of plastics and, more generally, to the negative changes that are happening around them. They are 'visually impaired', convinced that Human Beings can remain the only master of Planet Earth.
After collecting on the beach the colander and the broken arms of a mannequin, I suddenly thought of my mother’s hands, when she used them to prepare us lunch...It’s like the sea wanted to remind me of a time that has long gone. The nourishment is now lost between rusty and broken iron and the plastic, still too resistant. This is bringing people to become more indifferent and egocentric, not realising that sooner or later this 'dryness' will also affect their lives.
MONACŒCOART®: What can art do for the environment?
R.B.: In my conceptual art, every object that catches my attention can inspire an idea. Sustainability and recycling are integral part of my artistic imagery.
I draw inspiration from what I see, that is not always the representation of beauty. I would like then to sensitise everyone through a strong emotional impact that I hope my works inspire. Everyone looks at my work must understand quite clearly what is behind it: the request for help against any silent dreadful " nature occupation" by Humans. The time has come to act. So, I do hope to make a contribution to encourage a peaceful rebellion of Humans against waste pollution, with special regard to plastics. ***
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By Maurice Abbati
👇 "Communicating the Environment to Save the Planet, a Journey into Eco-Communication" by M. Abbati
Springer International Publishing
