It's art that rhymes with cinema, especially at a child's eye level. Starting this year, a valuable collaboration has been added to support the Locarno Kids initiatives: the Guastalla Foundation, of which Giovanni Guastalla is president. "Between the Locarno Film Festival and our Foundation there is an ideal chemistry that arises from the desire to put art and artistic research at the forefront of all our activities. And it is a principle that we want to put before any commercial aspect ".
This has been the guiding principle that the Guastalla Foundation has embraced since it was founded in 2004. "I have always had a strong passion for contemporary art, in all its forms, from painting to sculpture to photography. Being able to rely on a consolidated relationship with a prominent personality such as Ludovico Pratesi, we began to think about how we could support the creativity of young Italian artists, setting up exhibitions that could guarantee their growth".
Every artist has within them that creative drive that is typical of childhood, during which it lives its freest and most powerful expression
This is non-profit promotional work, but always looking to the future, in the name of openness. "Well, yes, we even looked towards cinema and the film industry, given that on several occasions we have engaged - through financial support - in the production of short films or other small private activities. In this I was very influenced by my son Alessandro who had a visceral passion for cinema and took part in Cinema&Gioventù”. This existing link with the Festival proved to be the opportunity for a direct cooperation this year. "It immediately seemed to me an extraordinary opportunity, being able to make a concrete contribution to the set of activities that Locarno puts in place to educate with the passion for cinema. I think that between Locarno Kids and the world of art there is a bond of continuity that must be taken care of, because every artist has within them that creative drive that is typical of childhood, during which it lives its freest and most powerful expression".
And it is no coincidence that there is now great anticipation to find out what the first results of this process will be. “With Homemade Movies, we also had the collaboration of a director like Claude Barras, who impressed me with the film My Life as a Zucchini. Now, after his video tutorials as a teaching method, I'm really curious to see the creativity each child will be able to express on their own through a short film. " Because understanding what children want to tell is beginning to understand something of the world of tomorrow.
