ArtePollino wants to interact with the worlds of art and culture on the theme of climate change to generate always new cultural opportunities in the Pollino National Park through the combination of art and nature, using various languages of the contemporary and audiovisual. The festival will involve artists, directors, researchers, university and academies of fine arts lecturers, museums and foundations, and will include the creation of a permanent work of art, a performance, three audiovisual works, artist residencies, workshops, walks, round tables open to the public and a few appointments dedicated to secondary school students. Behind the scenes of the event, held in Latronico, a municipality in the province of Potenza, is the association ArtePollino, which was set up in February 2008 with the aim of fostering the cultural growth of the Pollino National Park area, promoting all forms of artistic expression, especially contemporary. The proposed initiatives are designed to involve local communities, schools, associations and cultural enterprises, in order to create a wide sense of participation and sharing. ArtePollino 2022 is also among the projects supported by the APQ Sensi Contemporanei “Cinema”, an agreement signed between the Basilicata Region, the General Directorate for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of Culture, and the Agency for Territorial Cohesion; Sensi Contemporanei is a complex programme of public investments that uses the expressive forms of art as factors of cultural and economic development, able to generate knowledge, skills and employment, and to enhance the tourist attraction of a territory.

The exhibition between art and climate change
“The Earth is getting warmer, the climate is changing – we read on the festival’s website – for the last century and a half, our planet has been warming up very quickly, and the main cause is human activity. Glaciers have been retreating, sea levels have been rising, and intense weather phenomena have been more and more frequent: floods, with landslides, disruption and damage to homes, heat waves, droughts and fires. All this affects human health, agriculture, migration, causing a reduction in biodiversity and an imbalance that compromises the health of the ecosystem”. It is in this context that art must play a specific role, claim the organisers of the event: “Art is called upon to deal with what is happening on a global level, and to ask us all, and itself, questions that stimulate reflection and open the way to change and regeneration. In a constant dialogue with other disciplines, from natural sciences to humanities, with politics, schools, the world of work and a variety of associations, art can make a significant contribution to telling the story, to questioning itself, and questioning us, about the relationship between man and the environment”.

The Third Paradise and the Rebirth Forum
The exhibition will also feature a permanent work dedicated to Michelangelo Pistoletto‘s Third Paradise, which will be unveiled on 3 May at 6 pm in the Terme Lucane Park, in collaboration with Cittadellarte. During the inauguration, the Biella-born artist will be in video connection with Saverio Teruzzi, coordinator of the Rebirth/Third Paradise ambassadors. The making of the installation in Latronico will also be documented through an audiovisual work curated by director Luca Acito. The active participation and involvement of Fondazione Pistoletto does not end here: on 4 May, at 4 pm, at the MULA+ Latronico’s Museum and Library, Cittadellarte, together with the association ArtePollino (temporarily acting as a Third Paradise embassy), will lead the works of the second Rebirth Forum in Pollino, open to citizens, associations and administrators; the working tables will be dedicated to the theme ‘Culture and care of territories and those who inhabit them’. To participate and for further information you can write to the following contacts: 3406786865 – artepollino@gmail.com.