Cittadellarte – Pistoletto Foundation
Was established in 1998 as the concrete implementation of the Manifesto Progetto Arte through which Michelangelo Pistoletto proposes a new role for the artist, as activator of dynamics, projects and creative ideas to stimulate responsible change in the various areas of society. Cittadellarte is a new form of artistic and cultural institution that places art in direct interaction with the various sectors of society. It is a place for the convergence of creative ideas and projects that combine creativity and enterprise, education and production, ecology and architecture, politics and spirituality. An organism aimed at producing civilization, activating a responsible social transformation necessary and urgent at a local and global level.
The fundamental theme of Cittadellarte’s activities is the relationship between the freedom of art and the ethics of social responsibility. Cittadellarte is indeed structured into thematic offices, operation centers called Uffizi, each dedicated to developing research experimental practices with the prospect of relating artistic creativity with the shared construction of the “common good”.
Cittadellarte – Pistoletto Foundation
Fondazione Zegna
Fondazione Zegna was established by the fourth generation of the Zegna family in 2000, to improve the quality of life of communities and individuals around the world – a mission rooted in the beliefs of the company’s founder, Ermenegildo, for whom ethics, business and aesthetics were intrinsically interwoven. In the 1930’s he created one of the earliest Italian examples of environmental and social patronage, through the reforestation of the mountain area surrounding his eponymous wool mill and the establishment of welfare facilities.
The Foundation plans and coordinates international humanitarian initiatives in four areas of activity: conservation and amelioration of environmental and cultural resources; fostering of sustainable development in local communities, in Italy and abroad; support for medical and scientific research; education and training for young people. Fondazione Zegna is based in Trivero, where Casa Zegna, an industrial historical archive and cultural center, and Oasi Zegna, an “open-air laboratory” covering over 100 km2 and focusing on the mutual relationships between people, mountain culture and nature, are also situated. Zegna long standing commitment to art inspires two contemporary projects of Fondazione Zegna: ALL’APERTO, started in 2008, commissions permanent site-specific works of public art for the territory of Trivero (Biella); Visible, initiated in 2010, is a contemporary art research project devoted to producing and sustaining socially engaged art practices in a global context.
