“We must have the courage to be more arrogant. We know our value and our history: sometimes in the contemporary world it is necessary to raise the voice to be heard “: Nino Cerruti, turned 88 in September, gave a slogan of rare effectiveness to the candidacy of Biella among the Unesco creative cities, that took its first real steps on Thursday, January 31 at Palazzo Gromo Losa. The Biella designer is one of the most convinced testimonials of the campaign and did not want to miss the public meeting promoted by the city of Biella and the Cassa di Risparmio di Biella Foundation, promoters of the initiative together with Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto. And Michelangelo Pistoletto presented the logo he donated to the project, which recalls his artistic symbol, the Third Paradise: “I see this room full,” said the master, “and I think that when I returned to Biella I made the right choice” .
The enthusiasm of the two spokesmen, flags of biellesità in two different areas but with creativity as a common denominator, was one of the keys to the morning of work, led by the journalist of Il Sole 24 Ore, in turn Biellese, Maria Cristina Origlia.
The mayor Marco Cavicchioli and the president of the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation Franco Ferraris did the honors. “This candidacy, born from an intuition of Ferraris, is a point of arrival and a point of departure,” said the mayor. «It is the recognition of at least two centuries of textile culture, of the extraordinary capacity of entrepreneurs and of the equally extraordinary one of thousands of men and women who have worked in factories with an uncommon commitment and dedication. But it is also a starting point because from here a series of initiatives will be born that will help us to make known this territory and its excellence in the world ».
“This is the candidacy of a fantastic territory in all its components, from the lake to the Alps,” added Franco Ferraris, “and it is a territory that has shown its value throughout history. Our know-how is not in question: imagine how many people in the world today wear a garment made in Biella. It is news in recent days that the fashion system has reached a turnover of 100 billion. Much of this value is produced in our city ».
A city that aims to present itself together with the appointment with UNESCO: the publication of the “call”, or the call to the cities that intend to apply, is scheduled for February, the deadline for sending the documentation will be in June and a decision will be taken in the fall. The unity of intent was also noted by the non-Biellese experts present at the Palazzo Gromo Losa appointment: “I am here for the value of friendship” said Marco Magnifico, vice president of FAI, among the first to have signed a letter in support of the candidacy, “driven by the example of the Zegna family, among the first to have been able to combine business and landscape, and by Michelangelo Pistoletto, whose perspective has always been to push the gaze of others to embrace what his artist’s gaze he had seen in advance”.
The day continued with a dense succession of interventions, from the local historian Danilo Craveia to Angelo Boscarino, president of Bia, the consulting company that will follow the Biella practice, up to the representatives of the other Italian cities that are already part of the UNESCO network, from Fabriano, one of the nine already in the circuit of creative cities in which Biella aspires to enter, in Milan (literature), from Turin (design) to Alba (gastronomy). The development of the project will also be told by a website, under construction at www.biellacittacreativa.it, and by the Facebook page “Biella Creative City”.
