The Bosco delle Neofite opens in Prato: a project of urban reforestation, energy saving and installation of works of art organized by the Municipality and the Associazione Arte Continua.
“Plants as oxygen for the body, the works of artists from the international art community as oxygen for the mind and vice versa. An equation to raise awareness for Via d’arte to respect the fragility and strength of life”
Mario Cristiani
Art for Reforestation was born from an idea by Mario Cristiani with the aim of transforming theTobbiana Allende area of Pratohome to a nucleus of public housing, in an innovative neighborhood that integrates urban reforestation, energy saving and installation of works of art in dialogue with homes and green lungs, to reach the creation of public housing conceived as true energy-saving works of art. The funds raised through the project made it possible to create a green lungof approximately 150 trees of different species between deciduous and evergreen, chosen by the Professor Mancusobeyond 400 shrubs distributed over an area of 7,500 m2. These species are so familiar to us today that they seem native, but instead they come from many different countries and have managed to make a home here, giving us air and oxygen.
Continuing Art Association thus inaugurates, as part of the “Le Cities of the Future” project, the new Bosco delle Neofite, a reforestation project in the area of public housing in Tobbiana Allende in collaboration with the Municipality of Prato, commissioned to Prof. Stefano Mancuso and PNAT. The Association also managed to equip the area with ua series of totems designed to tell the story of the evolution of the park is across plant species carefully selected and found within it, both through works of art and the artists who made this project possible.
Art for Reforestation
The launch of the initiative was made possible thanks to a fundraising campaign established in 2022 through the auctioning of graphics, serigraphs, lithographs and unique pieces generously donated by seventeen international artists: For 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 and Antony Gormley. On the same occasion, the prints and wine boxes created for the occasion were also auctioned Art x Wine = Wateran initiative linked to the UN campaign launched for 2003, the World Water Year, with which the Association managed to donate two million euros guaranteeing access to drinking water to some communities in difficulty in various parts of the world.
Associazione Arte Continua thus continues its activity of promoting the concept of indispensability of art on a par with the fundamental resources of life, such as air, water and energy, integrating works by artists from the international community into the spaces of daily life that are open and accessible to all free of charge.
ART AS OXYGEN FOR THE MIND, TREES AS OXYGEN FOR THE BODY AND VICE VERSA. An urban reforestation project promoted by the Associazione Arte Continua, in collaboration with the Municipality of Prato, commissioned to Prof. Stefano Mancuso and PNAT.
Project Participants
Continuing Art Association
For 33 years, Associazione Arte Continua has been committed to regularly offering public art initiatives involving artists from the international art community, not concentrated only in large cities but spread across the territory. Associazione Arte Continua is a non-profit organization which, thanks to the help of donations and sponsorships from private individuals and companies, and small public contributions, manages to carry out public art activities, triggering local development processes and creating social and cultural connections. The driving force of the Association is the attempt to create, both in small villages and in cities, always in collaboration with local communities and institutions, a point of balance between city and countryside and produce new links between art, architecture and landscape, restoring art a central role in the construction of cities and territories, respecting their specificities. Associazione Arte Continua is committed to the creation of various projects that involve contemporary art as a driver for the improvement of social and environmental conditions.
Municipality of Prato
The Municipality of Prato is constantly updating its contemporary identity, thanks also to the proactive action carried out over the last thirty years by the Pecci Center for Contemporary Art.
In recent years Prato has developed important industrial water recycling, fabric recycling and energy saving policies. The city’s increasingly close relationship with European institutional partners has meant that the Prato of innovation and the circular economy is a perfect scenario for international artistic collaboration. The city is engaged in major urban reforestation projects with the program Forest City Lawn which see Professor Stefano Mancuso and the architect Stefano Boeri as protagonists, in particular with the project Urban Jungle lawn they concentrated on the redevelopment and reforestation of peripheral areas
Stefano Mancuso and PNAT
Stefano Mancuso is an Italian botanist, academic and essayist. A world-renowned scientist, he is currently Professor of general arboriculture and plant ethology at the University of Florence, as well as director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV), full academic of the Accademia dei Georgofili, and co-founder of PNAT. Mancuso is participating in the solidarity auction together with PNAT, a spin-off company of the University of Florence which deals with transferring knowledge about the plant world in the creation of technological innovations, integrating plants into people’s lifestyle at 360 degrees.
