The research project

Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto is integrated in the living fabric of Biella's citizenry. For almost thirty years it has been producing initiatives aimed at fostering encounters between companies, artisans, voluntary and cultural associations, foundations, trade associations, schools and organisations from the third sector.

Continuing along this path, oriented towards the symbol of the Third Paradise as a figure of creative reconciliation between nature and artifice and all other diversities, Cittadellarte has invited the territory to a shared reflection leading to a programme of actions aiming at directing the energies of civic engagement active in the territory towards a common horizon of sustainable prosperity, with constant reference to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (see The Art of Demopraxy, Cittadellarte editions, 2018).

The planning of Biella Città Arcipelago started in May 2019, with the aim of triggering a process of regeneration of Biella’s social and cultural fabric, through the active involvement of urban and peripheral communities.

The first step was the debate "Key issues to work on the development of a territory starting from Culture and Art - Prelude for a Chorus", held at Cittadellarte on 13th October 2019, with the participation of 30 representatives from the worlds of work, culture, third sector and public administration.

Also involved were the CTV Biella’s Territorial Volunteering Centre and the trade associations UIB, CNA, Confartigianato, Confcooperative, Legacoop, Ascom and Confesercenti, which had in turn invited their members to participate in the project.

A group of young people from 7 youth associations (Leo Club Biella, BI young, Better Places, La Fenice, Biella Siamo Noi, Fridays For Future, the Provincial Student Council) also took part in the initiative.

They collaborated in mapping 94 subjects (industrial and artisan enterprises, institutions, associations and third sector organisations, educators, operators in the field of tourism, culture and hospitality, farms, agritourisms) that have developed or are interested in developing sustainability projects in the territory of the province of Biella.

All the material collected – photos, videos, objects, knowledge and stories – has been translated into an exhibition, as a restitution to the territory, both physical in the restored spaces of Cittadellarte and online.