The Municipality of Modena has formally applied to become a Unesco Creative City for Media Arts, by sending today, Monday 31 May, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Unesco national commission the project drawn up within the framework of a process that began last December.
'Creating new opportunities for our community after the pandemic means investing strongly in the future,' comments Mayor Gian Carlo Muzzarelli, 'and candidacy in the network of Unesco Creative Cities is a great investment for Modena. Culture is an integral part of the strategy for restarting: it is not only the private sector that is starting up again, but the public sector has a fundamental role in this challenge because creativity, talent and the arts are a fundamental part of the Modena we want. And Modena is ready'.
As Culture Councillor Andrea Bortolamasi emphasises, 'Artificial intelligence, digital humanities, digital arts, the digitisation of the city's cultural heritage, and the development of cultural and creative industries are just some of the paths that enter into the Modena creative city for media-arts project. Many different aspects for a choral and systemic project, which involves all the city's cultural actors but also the subjects participating in the Table for Growth, and which focuses on strengthening the existing network and future developments. Culture and creativity,' the councillor continues, 'are at the heart of our idea of a future city: an open city, fertile for creativity, that keeps its manufacturing roots firmly in place but also looks to the future as a creative city.
The guidelines of the candidacy are the contamination of different genres and languages, with projects dealing with the relationship between digital innovations and transformations with music, dance, figurative and visual arts, and theatre; urban transformations of the city, with the creation of new cultural containers; and the focus on digital culture as a useful tool for the greater enjoyment of cultural activities.
The committee promoting the candidature brings together, together with the Municipality, Fondazione di Modena, Fondazione Brodolini - Laboratorio Aperto, Fmav, Gallerie Estensi, Unimore, Fem, Ert, Fondazione Teatro Comunale, Art-ER, Fondazione Collegio S. Carlo.
The evaluation of the Unesco national commission on the projects presented in Italy is expected in the coming weeks. This is the first step to arrive, if passed, at the international presentation in Paris.
The Creative Cities Network, in fact, is a Unesco programme active since 2004, involving a network of 246 cities in 72 countries on five continents. The aim is to promote knowledge, cooperation and projects among cities that have identified culture and creativity as the driving forces of their development. The watchwords are collaboration, sharing of knowledge and good practices, confrontation, planning, valorisation of intangible cultural heritage.
