GREEN ISLAND is a moment of reflection on key subjects such as sustainability, urban green and landscape as a whole. The GREEN ISLAND project, aimed at valorising the public space, has been operating since 2002 in Zona Isola Milan, between Garibaldi Train Station and via Pepe, involving a large network of arts and crafts workshops, design and architecture studios, as well as proposing site-specific installations and projects. Many kinds of contributors (artists, photographers, designers, architects, theorists and students) have been involved in the previous editions (Andrea Branzi ‘Oasi Verde Garibaldi’; the Dutch designer Ton Matton with the project ‘Urban Orchad’; Lois Weinberger and his Mobile Garden, ect).

 For this ninth edition Claudia Zanfi, founder of the GREEEN ISLAND project, has invited botanists, designers and landscape artists, to come up with the first garden of wild plants in Milan. The urgence of wild gardens in the city is for the ecological value, wild plants provide an eco-system which has largely been lost; for the cultural value, although many are of distant, exotic origin, these wild plants are now an integral part of the autochthonous urban flora; for the public value, as wild plants, if cultivated carefully, are capable of displaying a range of colours and scents. An unexpected beauty, to be made available to the different communities of the neighbourhood.

The project ‘The Green Public Library’ will be realized at Cavalcavia Bussa (at the back of the Garibaldi Railway Station) with a series of green patches and botanical tables that will decorate the wall along the garden, serving as a proper ‘book’ for the spread and understanding of these grass species.

 The seeds of the plants has been entrusted to the various international designers taking part in the project.

The garden will be inaugurated in the days of the Milano Design Week/Fuori Salone 2011 (12^th – 17^th April), along with a large network of exhibition and events ‘green, bio, slow’ in Isola District.

Among other : urban installations, photographic and art exhibitions, live music, food, design.

In this edition the GREEN NETWORK will host more than 20 international authors (from The Netherland, Switzerland, Brasil, New York, Riga, Prague, London, etc…).

GENERAL INFO:

- Title: GREEN ISLAND 2011 (9th edition)

- Dates: 12^th – 17^th April 2011 - Milano Design Week/Fuori Salone, Milan

- Opening & Cocktail: Tuesday 12^th April - 12pm

- Opening hours: open from 10am to 10pm every day

- Where: Isola neighbourhood, via Pepe

- Curated by: Claudia Zanfi, director of aMAZElab / Laboratorio del Paesaggio

- Special project: The Green Public Library/La Biblioteca del Verde Pubblico

- In collaboration with: Adopt a piece of Green, by Elena Comincioli + Daniele Belleri (London/Milan);

with the international team of designers: Andrea Branzi, Marco Ferreri, Duilio Forte, Makio Hasuike, Anna Gili.

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EXHIBITIONS in Zona Isola Milano (curated by Claudia Zanfi):

- The Green Provocateur, urban installation by the photograph Paul Clemence, NYC ( organized by PLANT and Jade Dressler); wall of  via Pepe, front of Equilibrio Urbano Conceptstore.

- Diorama della foresta bruciata, works by Andrea Forges Davanzati dedicated to the year of forests at Primo Posto, via Pastregno.

- Why do bees leave? video installation by the Swiss artist Katja Loher, Vernon Gallery (Prague), at Spazio Don via Cola Montano 15.

- Baby don’t cry, works and installations by Marco Tronci, at Spazio Tronci via Cola Montano 6.

- Dutch Creativity, for the first time in Italy the duo STALLINGA from Amsterdam and presentation of MONU Rotterdam, magazine of art, architecture and design at ‘Chiedi alla Polvere’, Via Cola Montano 24, Milano.

- Isola Design, images and drawings dedicated to the Isola neighborood and to the project DUC (Distretti Urbani del Commercio) realized by Politecnico Milano –Faculty of Society and Architecture, at Spazio Frida, via Pollaiolo 3, Milano.

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The GREEN Network: Community of local art and craft laboratories based in Zona Isola; COCKTAIL, EXHIBITIONS, MUSIC, CONFERENCES every evenings from 6pm.

 With the partnership of: Milan City Council, department of Green Areas and Urban Policy; Province of Milan, department of Culture; Centostazioni, Garibaldi Train Station; Polidesign, Milano; Dutch Consulate, Milano.

With the support of: Museo Alessi

Media Partners: AT Casa; TKmedia; Andy Magazine; Paysage.

GREEN MAP