Why the Art Biennale?

Of course, UPCREATE will be represented at the 59th International Art Exhibition, since on this occasion La Biennale di Venezia have offered a special project to us – a Session – where we can perform our work after 5 working days together in Venice.

This year’s Exhibition, The Milk of Dreams takes its title from a book by Leonora Carrington (1917–2011). Curator Cecilia Alemani stated – in which the Surrealist artist describes a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination. It is a world where everyone can change, be transformed, become something or someone else. The Exhibition The Milk of Dreams takes Leonora Carrington’s otherworldly creatures, along with other figures of transformation, as companions on an imaginary journey through the metamorphoses of bodies and definitions of the human.

For UPCREATE our focus will be both on The Milk of Dreams and the Cultural Heritage in our partner countries, but most of all working together with the young artists that have won the UPCREATE National Competitions.

We created UPCREATE, an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership including six partners in total, representing five European Countries, Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Italy & Slovenia, because the COVID-19 situation had a huge impact on people of all age groups, social classes, and cultural backgrounds. However, among the most challenged from the pandemic, were young people and cultural institutions.

Educational, cultural and social activities everywhere are still severely limited and, consequentially, social exclusion among young people is rising. Among these young people are future artists, creative entrepreneurs, writers, innovators, craftsmen and women, who have a huge potential to contribute to European society and culture. The situation also severely affects the cultural and creative sectors, and as a consequence, many of them are threatened on their livelihood with museums also generally struggling to attract young people. There is therefore a great need for cultural institutions to renegotiate their identity by interacting with their audience through new innovative approaches.

In UPCREATE we create new, innovative participatory approaches to how young people can engage with, develop and innovate the creative and cultural sectors. Doing so, it is the expectation that UPCREATE will realise new synergies between fields of education, training and youth. Furthermore, by combining two essential cultural fields – Food and Art – in new, innovative ways, UPCREATE will foster the creation of innovative solutions young people can use to face the current societal challenges, and which will support the recovery resilience of the culture and creative sectors.

See you at the 59th International Art Exhibition in Venice!

Anna Marie Fisker

Project Leader