XIII UNESCO CREATIVE CITIES CONFERENCE:
FROM JUNE 10-15, FABRIANO WILL HOST AN INTERNATIONAL DEBATE ON ANTI-FRAGILITY AND RESILIENCE IN XXI CENTURY CITIES
Projects of the Pavillions of Creativity were presented in a public event with over 200 attending, along with all the news on the international Creative Cities event, that will take place in the City of Paper, June 2019.
180 cities from all over the world will gather in Fabriano, during the main event of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, to discuss contemporary challenges. Among the attendants, Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan.
Nicola Piovani, Paolo Fresu, Massimo Cacciari and Antonio Forcellino will be among the guests of a strong program of cultural events.
Francesca Merloni presenting Pavillions of Creativity
An international debate on the challenges cities are facing in the XXI century: environmental emergencies, intolerance, loss of identity, sustainable development.
These themes will be at the hearth of the XIII UNESCO CREATIVE CITIES CONFERENCE, that will take place in Fabriano from June 10-15 2019, gathering Mayors from cities all over the world – from Japan to the USA, from Iran and Syria to European countries – discussing together how to build a future inspired from shared values such as culture, solidarity and inclusiveness. Among the attendants, Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan.
“We want to challenge the sense of distrust, in this moment when contrasts and closures are raising their heads” has declared Francesca Merloni, UNESCO Ambassador and the creative mind behind Fabriano’s event. “Creative cities and their network – she said – want to offer a proposal of collaboration. Cities are the right place to define once again the concept and the practice of being a community, often despite national policies. Cities, more than States, are places of openness, acceptance, elaboration”.
The UNESCO Creative Cities Conference is the most important international event organized by the UCCN, the network gathering cities for whom creativity is a strategic factor of development. Fabriano’s meeting, will involve Mayors from 180 cities, gathering some 500 guests between delegates, Institutions and personalities from the culture sector.
A dense program of events will transform the event in a unique chance to show the world the best of the italian creative system.
Projects of the Pavillions of Creativity were presented on February 20, 2019, in “Step 3”, a public event with over 200 attending, along with all the news on the international Creative Cities event, that will take place in the City of Paper, June 2019.
A REFLECTION ABOUT CITIES
The event was for the first time recognized as a UN Conference, and will host an important discussion on cities as a “Common Place”, communities, places of knowledge, acceptance and inclusion. The antifragile city – the city that springs back to life after natural disasters or acts of violence perpetrated by mankind – will be one of the main themes.
MAYORS’ FORUM
The UNESCO Mayors’ Forum will be the crucial event at the UNESCO Creative Cities conference – a meeting between the mayors in the network who stood out internationally for their work. Moderated by famous italian journalist Beppe Severgnini, the Mayor’s Forum will discuss concrete urban policies rooted in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda.
PAVILLIONS OF CREATIVITY
The City of Fabriano will transform itself into a large open-air workshop on creativity: the conference will coincide with cultural events, discussions, seminars, meetings as well as opportunities to share opinions and ideas inside the Pavilions of Creativity, which will be set up in the heart of the city centre, and in the main cities of the Marche region.
The Pavilions of Creativity will host delegates’ work, seminars and workshops, images and multimedia content and the products and experiences of Creative Cities from all over the world.
The Italian Coordination Committee for UNESCO Creative Cities will contribute to the organisation of the conference by with seven themed calls for projects. These are aimed at involving creative talent from all over the world in the creation of works of art, projects and initiatives, artistic installations and exhibitions to be shown in the Pavilions of Creativity.
RINASCO, a special pavilion, will be dedicated to cities that have recovered from devastating natural disasters or violence perpetrated by mankind, before springing back to life thanks to innovation, culture, knowledge and creativity: the Pavillion wil host cities of the Apennines, along with Haiti, Kobe (Japan), Palmyra (Syria), Aleppo (Syria), Mosul (Iraq), and Bamiyan (Afghanistan).
During the Step 3 meeting, the Pavillions projects were unveiled for the first time: another special Pavillion was also presented; realized by Fondazione Fedrigoni Fabriano, which manages the historical heritage of Fabriano paper factories, it will host a narration over almost 1.000 years of paper-making history.
CULTURAL EVENTS
During the UNESCO Creative Cities Conference, Fabriano will host a dense program of cultural events, involving personalities such as piano player and composer Nicola Piovani, musician Paolo Fresu, philosopher Massimo Cacciari and architect Antonio Forcellino.
THE GREAT BEAR CITIES PROJECT
A wonderful challenge, which goes out of Fabriano as the host city of the UCCN Conference: the Great Bear Cities project was born from an idea by Francesca Merloni, a joint cultural project connecting cities of the Marche region under a sign inspired by the Great Bear star.
Cities that participate in this project are Urbino, UNESCO World Heritage, and seven other towns representing at best the creative categories of the network, namely our ‘Great Bear Cities’: Ancona (Film), Ascoli Piceno (Design), Fermo (Crafts), Macerata (Media Arts), Pesaro (UNESCO Creative City of Music), Recanati (birth place of Giacomo Leopardi, Literature), and Senigallia (Gastronomy).
At the end of the day there will be a spectacular event encompassing the art and culture sectors which will take place in the theatres and squares of all the Great Bear Cities. Events will be filmed and shared in real time so that there will be a dialogue between them thanks to perfect logistic organisation and state-of-the-art technology.
