Art and Sustainability: the commitment of Arte Laguna Prize for a sustainable future
Arte Laguna Prize: a stage for sustainable art
Arte Laguna Prize has always had an eye for the theme of environmental sustainability. Over the years, to support the importance of this topic, it has created Special Prizes in collaboration with numerous companies and consortia dedicated to the recycling of materials and energy.
On the occasion of the double edition 18-19, held in November 2024 at the Arsenale Nord in Venice, 5 projects and works were presented for the category Art & Sustainability. These sculptural installations highlighted the role of art in promoting cooperation between man and environment. The collaborations between the partners and Arte Laguna have created a new meeting point, where Art, used as a communication tool, proves to be a fundamental keystone for the requalification of materials and for the promotion of sustainable practices.
The winning artists were presented on the Inauguration stage, side by side with the Partners who selected them from more than 900 nominations. The projects include:
Artistic projects for sustainability
Energiapuntozero, Treviso, Italy
The Treviso company has chosen Mario Valdès, a Spanish artist who, with the support of his partner, was hosted in Fratta di Tarzo (TV) during the project “Cor – Spazi Pubblici Palpitanti”, whose purpose was to revalue Italian villages using to Contemporary Art. Thanks to this collaboration, the artist has created a reworking of his original sculpture “The Lords of the Threshold“, creating “Dream of Trees“, which has been built entirely with natural materials of recovery, namely wood and glass, on which was then applied a screen printing.
Framis Italia, Milan, Italy
Framis Italia was founded in 1979 to promote the use of a new polyurethane elastic tape, the Framilon®, in the clothing industry. The award-winning artist is Jingyun Wang (China), who – with materials provided by the company – has created an installation about the continuous waste of energy and melting glaciers, through the representation of a refrigerator in continuous water loss.
With “ICE AGE”, the artist asks the viewer a question: are we evolving or regressing? A refrigerator, symbol of our will to preserve, hangs – lifeless – over our heads, symbolizing the looming weight of an excessive consumption present and a future of scarcity.
Biorepack, Milan, Italy
Biorepack manages the end-of-life of compostable bioplastic packaging, ensuring that it is properly disposed of in the separate collection of moisture and transformed into high quality compost. THe comany works to make these packages easily recognisable by promoting clear labelling and providing useful information to citizens. Claudia Federica Soldani (Italy) was the chosen winner, with her work the “Ipotesi di Gaia”, depicting a woman from earth who rises up, exploring the theme of rebirth, identity and the fragility of the relationship between humanity and our environment.
Coreve, Milan, Italy
CoReVe is a non-profit consortium whose aim is to achieve the objectives of recycling and recovery of glass packaging waste produced in Italy. In particular, it deals with the direct information to the citizen regarding the recycling and recovery of glass waste and prepares the specific prevention programme with guidelines for achieving the recycling objectives. The winning artist is the Italian Andrea Papi, who perfectly presented the circularity of glass with his work “Reuse, Recycle, Reduce“, created with a series of bottles arranged in a circle, each of which is positioned to give the impression of a rebirth from the material itself.
Contarina, Treviso in collaboration with Aiku, Venezia, Italy
Contarina, waste collection consortium of the province of Treviso, in collaboration with Aiku, supported by the Ca’Foscari University of Venice, have selected one artist from among the finalists of Arte Laguna Prize, Henrique Netto (Brazil) with his work “Electroctopus Breathing”. The work represents the waste of digital material and the resulting pollution. The work is part of a series of experiments with electronic waste inserted between pieces of glass windows and placed in an oven for the melting process. The result is glass bubbles created by toxic gases, expelled from metals and plastics of electronic components in the combustion process. The partners wanted to reward the work for its in-depth and contemporary analysis of the waste issue.