Catalogo Cartasia 2010

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.
Cartiera SCA: Balle di carta / SCA Paper factory: Paper bales 15