THE CARTASIA INSTANCE by Emiliano Galigani

THE CARTASIA INSTANCE

By Emiliano Galigani / Cartasia Organizing Committee Director

To invest time and resources in culture mainly means territorial development and promotion. This first and, in some way, obvious assertion cannot be disjoined from considering the investment in culture as carrier of a social, ethical, economic and aesthetical development. To invest in culture, also implies dealing with a fundamental theme: the resumption of our memory. The memory of what we were (any nostalgic operation, though, but the protection of our cultural heritage, being aware of it and strengthening our own roots, in order to face the future challenges) has to be preserved, handed down and communicated, in my opinion, in every place and with every possible mean, crosswise, involving all generations. This is exactly what we wanted to do when we thought about the making of Cartasia.

Cartasia is a biennial exhibition of contemporary art, born from a territorial productive excellence, and from historical and cultural roots, with the ambition to be a ground for cultural exchange for the development of the artistic worldwide “avant-garde”, facing a more and more interesting mean which is paper. We have created the Biennial counting on the these peculiarities, on a extremely fine context (the city of Lucca), mixing the Symposium’s formula (artists that meet each other to realize their works in a permanent workshop), with a contest, exhibits and happenings. This melting pot has a fil rouge that links all the events: paper, its history, its possibilities. The past and the future.

Sustainable development, industrial paper world, historical memory, artistic avant-garde, territorial promotion; instances that have gone together throughout the years in the name of the promotional function of art. Each year, the national press campaign has always had such a great success, so that we felt compelled to look beyond our usual borders, aiming to more global challenges. Therefore, Cartasia has been establishing more and more international partnerships: Sofia (Amateras Paper Festival), Apeldoorn (Holland Paper Biennial), Charmey (Triennale du Papier), the Italian Institutes of Culture (New York, St. Francisco), the city of Metz (France).

To produce culture means to leave a deep mark of our own passage. To produce culture means to bring economic, social, aesthetical development to the community.

Nicolas Bertoux, Labirinto / Labyrinth, 2004