For the past three years, the closing day of Drap-Art, a Catalan festival dedicated to the arts, has coincided with the Rebirth Day. Founded in 1995 in Barcelona by Tanya Grass, the festival offers a dense calendar of events spread over the course of two months (this year from 26 October to 21 December) consisting of group exhibitions by artists and independent artists, installations and public art interventions, with the objective of bringing sustainable art closer to an ever-widening pool of visitors. The entire event, involving numerous artists, cultural managers and creative people, wants to promote more sustainable and planet-friendly behaviour and lifestyles through events and artistic projects, highlighting the ecological emergency caused by today’s consumer society. To do that, the final event of the whole festival was dedicated to the celebration and creation of the trinamic symbol. The performance, organised by the Espronceda Institute of Art and Culture, took place in Placa de la Merce under the curatorship of Rebirth/Third Paradise ambassador Savinia Tarsitano and Rebirth/Third Paradise ambassador coordinator Saverio Teruzzi. The project once again involved the German Consulate in Barcelona, and for the first time the organisation Cultural Diplomacy.
On 21 December, for the whole day, various multidisciplinary activities involving the community were carried out. Curator Savina Tarsitano said to us: “In this very delicate historical moment, in which there is a real need for greater solidarity between peoples, we created a series of performances with different organisations that led the community to open a dialogue on the concept of peace and to discuss everyday actions, also referring to the role of art and artists in society. On the occasion of the Rebirth Day, as well as round tables dedicated to cultural exchange and dialogue, a banquet was set up to share in parallel with an exhibition of painted canvases from the Kids Guernica project depicting the trinamic symbol, which arrived directly from Nepal, Geneva and also from the local refugee community from Ukraine”.
Kids Guernica, a project with the motto ‘Painting Together for a Peaceful World’, involves and unites children from all over the world through the creation and shipment of painted canvases depicting symbols of peace and brotherhood, including Michelangelo Pistoletto‘s symbol-sign. This way, each canvas, of the same dimensions as Picasso’s famous work (3.5 m x 7.8 m), becomes a manifesto for world peace to counter the monstrosity of war conflicts. The Kids Guernica project, presented last December, was carried out by Nepal Mylabari Village and Ecolint-International School of Geneva under the direction of Rebirth/Third Paradise ambassador Takuya Kaneda. “Dedicating time to reflection, exchange and silence for all the people who are suffering in the world, besides giving ample space for the children to draw together and leave their thoughts,” the ambassador commented, “was a true gift of joy and mutual solidarity”.
This year, the organisation of the festival, leaning towards new horizons, showed particular enthusiasm for the various international collaborations obtained, such as with the Festival Cósmica in Montevideo in Uruguay, with the Westbund Art & Design Fair in Shanghai, and with Eddy Ekete, promoter of the Kinact Festival in Kinshasa. The latter participated in one of the Drap-Art events with one of his performance projects.
Over time, the entire festival has become a synergetic network of Catalan artists, designers, craftsmen and professionals who, all united by the reuse of materials, encourage sustainable art with creative guests from all over the world.
On the Rebirth Day, therefore, the local community of Catalonia celebrated a tourist renaissance and a vibrant blossoming of the local cultural landscape, witnessing not only the initiation of international relations, but also the introduction of new galleries, spaces and multicultural initiatives.
