Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Palazzo Spini Feroni, Firenze

12 April 2019 – 8 March 2020

The term “sustainability”, according to the 1987 Brundtland Report, defines the capacity of man to “satisfy the needs of the present generation without compromising the possibility that future generations will be able to satisfy their own “, that is, it represents one a condition of development capable of ensuring a quality of life of not less than the current one.

Numerous artists are looking at sustainability, some focusing on recovering our relationship with nature, the use of organic materials, the need for creative re-use of materials, or relations between nature and technology, while others are looking at the importance of a collective commitment to refounding society overall. Museo Salvatore Ferragamo presents the exhibition “Sustainable Thinking”, created to make people reflect on these themes.

Villani Leonello’s cork fabric has been selected to participate in this exhibition and the artist Paola Anziché made a suspended sculpture using the cork fabric with a clever concentric weaving that enhances the characteristics of the fiber.

Cork is a natural material obtained from cork oak and has been used for over two thousand years. It is mainly found in the Mediterranean; and in Italy, especially, in Sardinia and Sicily. It has excellent thermal and acoustic insulation properties, is water- and fire-resistant, and is naturally biodegradable. Cork can be reused several times through non-invasive processes.

It is estimated that cork forests absorb 14 million tons of CO2 per year and contribute to reducing the number of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and slowing down global warming. Cork is able to retain approximately twice its weight of CO2. An excellent example of the circular economy.