One of the biggest events of the year, Florens 2010, the international biennial of culture and landscape, running from November 12 to 20 throughout the city and environs, promises over 150 events dedicated to culture.
The event takes its name from the name of Florence, Fiorente, in Latin, and it will be held in the city every two years, making Florence a world capital of culture, knowledge and development, art, artisan craftsmanship and industry. Its focus this year is that of ‘promoting and reinterpreting’ the economics behind culture and landscape, and its aim is to encourage the growth of the city’s so-called ‘golden economy’ as well as its ‘green economy’.
‘Florens aims to relaunch Florence as the capital of culture; culture which is considered a modern motor that can fuel the economy,’ says Giovanni Gentile, president of the Florence Confindustria, brainchild of the initiative. Gentile considers the initiative ‘industrial and not cultural’ and views the city’s vast cultural heritage as a ‘golden economy,’ which, alongside its growing green economy, could help Florence bounce back from the global economic crisis.
‘The global recession has made us seriously rethink all of our productive systems and models of consumption. From Florence, we wanted to relaunch a simple and ambitious idea: the economics of culture and landscape can be a new and successful productive paradigm and new motor of economic development,’ Gentile stated at the Florens 2010 press conference, recently held in New York city.
Through Florens 2010, Florence and Tuscany aspire to become a global laboratory of art, culture and economy, a model that can be exported at the international level, giving concrete and innovative examples that can boost emerging green and golden economies. This new model of cultural economics will favour both quality of life and intellectual and entrepreneurial competitiveness, Gentile affirms.
The far-reaching event has been organized by the Florence chapter of the Confindustria, the national association of Italian industry, the Cna Firenze, Intesa Sanpaolo bank, the Banca Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, with the patronage of the Italian ministries of the culture, environment and foreign affairs, the Tuscan region, the city of Florence, and Unesco among others.
Under the artistic direction of Davide Rampello, the biennial features over 150 events, among them an international forum on culture and landscape, some 30 conferences and 10 exhibitions. Organizers want to attract a wide range of participants, from professionals who work in the fields of culture and landscape to students, tourists and local residents. Moreover, the entire city will host events, including in Florence’s Duomo and Baptistry, Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Palazzo Sacrati Strozzi, piazzas, museums, bookshops and more. Events will also take place in the surrounding areas of Scandicci, Fiesole, Bagno a Ripoli and Campi Bisenzio.
Over 70 experts from 20 countries working in the worlds of cultural and landscape will take part in a three-day ‘strategic study’ of the economics of culture and landscape at Palazzo Vecchio (November 18 to 20) during the international forum. The study will use a new mode of analysis, the Florens Index, which will analyze a particular region’s cultural offerings, the behaviour, demands and choices of those who seek culture, and the general attitude towards philanthropy in culture and the arts. Among the renowned guests expected at the forum are Marc Olivier Wahler, director of the Parisan contemporary art museum Palais de Tokyo; Patrick Blanc, inventor of vertical gardens; Edward Dolman, chairman of Christie’s; Terry Garcia, vice esecutive president of the National Geographic Society; Laurent Fabius, former prime minster of France and current president of the Rouen District Council; Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Charles Leadbeater, writer and expert in innovation; Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg; Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of New York; Peter Reed, Senior Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs of the MoMA of New York; and Wafaa el Saddik, director of the Egpytian Musuem of Cairo.
An important event also takes place in Piazza Duomo. It is an urban art installation that promises to give a strong visual effect: the pavement of the piazza will be covered in vast field of grass and flowers, just like that which is said to have occurred in the miracle of San Zanobi. Michelangelo’s David will also take centre stage as replicas will be placed in all of the locations where it was once proposed to stand: on the Duomo, on the Santa Maria del Fiore sacristy and in Palazzo Vecchio’s Salone dei Cinquecento.
An array of thematic workshops and conferences will be held by national and international experts. Other events include book presentations and encounters with authors in city bookshops, as well as music concerts, urban performances and historical re-enactments, film screenings and workshops for children.
Noteworthy events have also been organized by the National Geographic Society, official media partner of the Florens 2010, such as the photography show Polar Obsession and the film screenings, Secrets of Florence and Great Migration – The making of.
For a complete programme, see www.florens2010.com
