The Neophyte Forest was inaugurated in Prato

Nicolas Ballario hosted the inauguration of the Bosco delle Neofite in Prato, outcome of the project Art for Reforestation – part of The Cities of the Future – designed by Mario CristianiPresident of the Arte Continua Association, edited by Stefano Mancuso (Italian botanist, academic and essayist) And PNAT (Project Nature), a company born from the University of Florence. The Neophyte Forest is a green lung in a peripheral and particularly polluted area of ​​Prato and is part of Forest City Meadow, forestry route of the city, a virtuous example of synergy between public and private. After the planting of the first tree on 4 October 2023, today the forest consists of 150 plants, between deciduous and evergreen trees and over 400 shrubs, all selected by Professor Mancuso and coming from different parts of the world. Thanks to the enlightened vision of Mario Cristiani, the previously abandoned area of ​​7,500 square meters, adjacent to the public housing of Tobbiana Allende, has now become a green park that restores contact with nature to the community, absorbs 3000 kg of CO₂ per year and breaks down fine dust.

The indispensability of art and greenery

As the mayor pointed out Matteo Biffoni and the Councilor for Urban Planning of the Municipality of Prato Valerio Barberis, the Bosco delle Neofite is an initiative full of meaning. The basic idea, always promoted by Mario Cristiani and the Arte Continua Association, is that ofindispensability of art, understood as a fundamental necessity, like daily wages and water and energy, which as such must come out of museums and enter people’s daily lives. With Art for Reforestation this concept extends to greenery which, equally essential for health, must leave the parks to invade the cities. Furthermore, due to its emergence in a place characterized by a housing emergency, the Bosco delle Neofite acquires a concrete meaning in terms integration, peace and inclusion and not only for the presence of the olive tree blessed donated by the Gardens of the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo where the project is being carried out Borgo Laudato Si’, but due to its being deliberately made up of non-native plants. As stated by Prof. Mancuso: “This park is called Bosco delle Neofite because, in contravention of the rules that generally require reforestation using only ‘local’ species, it is made up of plants that are not native to these places but are becoming so. The truth is that the concept of ‘native’ in itself is meaninglesssince the world, as we know it today, is the result of continuous changes, grafts and migrations”. And he continues: “Moreover, It is very important to connect the theme of greenery to that of health. The Covid experience has taught us the importance of oxygenating the body in green areas. On the contrary, the data is alarming. It is predicted that by 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. In Europe alone, since the 1950s, 50% of citizens lived in cities, a value which – according to Eurostat – in 2018 reached three quarters of Europeans. Therefore, we must ensure that nature reclaims the cities, given its essential nature at a health and social level.”

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The projects of the Arte Continua Association

The inauguration of the Bosco delle Neofite was a precious opportunity to explore the projects of the Arte Continua Association with Mario Cristiani, starting from Art to Artwhich, as he himself explains, “they aspire to give back un identity to cities through the works of great international artists, the only ones capable of creating an integration between art, architecture and landscape. Following what Gramsci said about the relationship between intellectuals and the people, of how the former had to guide the latter, I have always considered it important to bring into public spaces the world’s greatest artists, recognized by the international community, capable of dealing with history and to restore an important value to citizenship. With Art to Art we want to give communities the opportunity to enjoy free access to works which, in general, are the prerogative of museums and private individuals. We want to bring great art back to normality, make it part of the urban daily life of citizens, ensuring that they can know it, breathe it, live it. Just as greenery must come out of parks, art must come out of museums, becoming a source of life, teaching and inspiration for everyone.”

Some interventions by Arte all’Arte by Associazione Arte Continua

Among the interventions in the territory of Arte per l’Arte we note those of Mimmo Paladino, Kiki Smith and Antony Gormley. Mimmo Paladino with the installation The Sleepers(2000) made an already extremely suggestive place magical: the Fonte delle Fate of Poggibonsi, an 11th century portico that covers a spring and a basin. Numerous bronze sculptures depicting crocodiles and men in a fetal position are placed on as many bronze tables in a random manner inside the tank and, in their being partially immersed, become an integral part of this primordial environment. The Source, like a womb, welcomes these figures whose mysterious and dreamlike aura is accentuated by the original soundtrack, composed of Brian Eno which is the backdrop to the work.
There Blue Girl Of Kiki Smith, presented at the UMoCA museum in Colle Val d’Elsa with two other twin sculptures in 2011, today observes visitors from a niche in the Medici Fortress of Poggio Imperiale. The work created in collaboration with local artisans, experts in crystal processing, represents a girl who, in a moment of rest, is surrounded by light bulbs, a symbol of inspiration, imagination, clarity.
Also in Poggibonsi, a crossroads and place in continuous reconstruction from the Middle Ages to the Second World War, Antony Gormley He has made Make room, Take a seat (2004). A project which, starting from the idea that, as human beings, we are space within the space of cities and the universe, saw the creation of seven sculptures depicting six inhabitants of Poggibonsi plus one who was passing by, placed in particularly significant places for the local community. Both the people portrayed and the places were selected on the basis of sociological research which actively involved the citizens, creating a deep bond with them and from which a psycho-geographical map of the city was obtained (Collective memory map) in which the sculptures intend to act as catalysts and receptors of thoughts and feelings.

The UMoCA project

Associazione Arte Continua is also responsible for the public art project UMoCA, Under Museum of Contemporary Art, which, created by the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang for Colle Val d’Elsa in 2001, brings the arches underneath the San Francesco Bridge back to life, transforming them to all intents and purposes into a place dedicated to art. UMoCA is a project closely linked to the natural, historical and cultural context of the city which integrates local craftsmanship with the touch of international artists. After being closed in 2011, UMoCA was reopened in 2022 with the exhibition of Marisa and Mario Merz, intertwining a renewed and solid dialogue with citizens and the administration. Today UMoCA welcomes the project Arranging Proximities by Loris Cecchini, leading artist on the international scene, who creates works poised between a poetic and scientific vision of nature.

Ludovica Palmieri

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