Gilda Contemporary Art promotes itself as a gallery committed to the safeguard of the environment, and adheres to a project that aims to mitigate its Co2 emissions – caused by heating and electricity consumed by the gallery – via the mechanism of compensatrion.

In order to do this, Gilda has made a deal with Phoresta Onlus which promotes projects of forestation and conservation. In detail, Gilda has signed up an initiative by Phoresta involving the creation of a woodland which is located only 15 minutes from downtown Bologna. The woodland covers an area of 17 hectares (170,000 sqm), 6,000 of which will be completely reforested with 1,040 native plants, such as field maple, oak, hornbeam, etc. The deal signed up by Gilda and Phoresta is on a three-yearly basis and consists of an adequate funding from Gilda. The woodland will be open to the public as it will be traversed by footpaths, it will absorb Co2 and will also contribute to generating more oxygen and improving the biodiversity in the area. The project has also an awareness-raising aim, as it is an example of how anyone of us can fight the climate change in a practical and perceptible way.

In order to inform its audience on this interesting initiative and to cooperate actively to the disseminaton of Phoresta activities, Gilda will organize every year a presentation about the mission of Phoresta Onlus and the update on the ongoing projects, with a special focus on the woodland in Bologna. During the same evening, the opening of an exhibition on Nature and the relashionship between mankind and environment will take place.

For the year 2017 the project dedicated to Phoresta is called Ramificazioni (Ramifications), a word that also means how it’s possible to deal with Nature inside a contemporay art exhibition, and how the artworks on display are food for thought on the importance of respecting the ecosystems. Just like a tree with many branches, Gilda promotes itself as a platform of meetings and food for thought on contemporary culture.

The artists presented in Ramificazioni are Pina Inferrera and Marco Bettio.

Pina Inferrera has always researched the evironment and the ecosystem, also through open-air macro installations, using materials coming from the recycling of industrial waste, up to the latest photographic works of intense liricism, dedicated to trees and foliage.

For many years now, Pina Inferrera has been focusing on photography as a tool to investigate Nature and its mysteries. Through the study of tree reflections in pools of water and the search for special lighting effects, the artist is able to summarise in a shoot the spiritual and intimate atmosphere of that particular moment in which, sometimes by chance, sometimes as a result of a reckless pursuit, one feels like he is an integral part of the whole universe.

The ground floor of the gallery hosts a series of photographic works, light boxes and a suggestive installation from the artist’s archives, a shrine to Nature. The combination of works results in a micro monograph of the artist, that tells about the evolution of the research and the continuity of the subjects handled over the years.

On the first floor the gallery hosts the paintings by Marco Bettio, a series of small portraits of trees, speaking of Nature, but also of Life in a broad sense, of existence and above all of painting.”I was attracted by the chaotic branch intertwining in the tree. This endless chaos is bigger than me, than us, than Life. And this drawing (the painting is no older than fifteen years) has always been beside me, sometimes as a need to dream, more often as a need to be consoled. Today painting a tree means also my need to remain silent beside my work..” (Marco Bettio, notes, August 2017).

Two artists of intense poetry, high technical skill and clearly in an emotional relationship with Nature and times, its pauses and silence.

Phoresta Onlus is a non-profit organisation officially registered in September 2012. The founding members are a group of professionals in various fields (economics and accountancy, agriculture and forestry, agrarian economics and management, electronic engineering and remote sensing, marketing and communication, journalism, graphic design, event planning, public relations and logistics) who share an interest in reaching the parametres set out by the Kyoto Protocol, that is, the reduction of the atmospheric concentration of CO2 – one of the biggest causes of global warming. One of the biggest challenges in human history.

Pina Inferrera, Born in Messina, Italy, she lives and works in Mozzo (Bergamo, Italy).

Graduated first at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, she exhibited in many towns in Italy and abroad : Frankfurt, Istanbul, Locarno, London, Lugano, New York, Paris, Tournai, Vilnius and Beijing.

Her works are published in catalogues, art books, magazines, newspapers and websites.

She has been artistic director of the cultural organization IdeaVita, for which she curated shows in Italy and abroad, and she promoted art events in co-operation with critics, galleries, young and estabilished artists.

She organized some events on behalf of Assocomaplast. She is a contributor of Juliet Art Magazine.

Pina Inferrera’s search addresses to the exploration of the surrounding reality, and ranges from the observation of nature, environment and mankind to the analysis of artifacts.

At the same time she also explored other means of expression, like videos and art installations; by using industrial tools she carried out giant site-specific works capable of redrawing the space. She focused on photographic art with a view to investigate man and his habitat; her images are moving between real and surreal, in an unspoiled nature where a particular use of light suggests a spiritual space.

Many authors wrote about her work: A. Appiani, R. Bellini, J. Blanchaert, R. Borghi, M. Campitelli, C. Canali, L. Caramel, M. Cilena Sanguini, G. Ciusa, V. Conti, D. Curti, F. D’Amico, E. De Paoli, S. Di Giacomo, P. Emanuele, V. Falcioni, M. Galbiati, F. Gallo, G. Gellini, M.F. Giubilei, L. Giudici, C. Guerra, M. Hajek, A. Madesani, M. Mander, G. Marziani, C. Massini, R. Moratto, R. Mutti, S. Orlandi, R. Ridolfi, M. Romeo, M. Rosci, A. Scanzi, G. Scardi, A. Schwarz, G. Seveso, M. Tagliafierro, T. Trini.

Marco Bettio was born in 1974 in Padua, where he lived and has received his vocational trainig. After graduating at the art school, he attended the painting class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, without getting his diploma. In the same years he took part in and organized the first shows in public and private spaces. In 1996 Marco Bettio moved to Pistoia, Tuscany, where he exhibited and began to co-operate with architectural and interior design firms. From 2002 up to 2014 he lived and worked in Milan, and co-operated with many galleries and independent cultural centres (annotazioni d’arte, galleria e-studio, galleria Antonio Battaglia, galleria Eclettica, Open Art gallery). From 2014 he lives between Turin and Aosta where, in 2015 he exhibited at the regional Archaeological Museum. He also exhibited in some institutional places such as the Fonderia delle Arti in Rome (2013) and Palazzo Zenobio in Venice (2012).