17 SDGs, 17 VISIONS: Sustainability on World Art Day

Llíria City of Music celebrated this Thursday, April 15, World Art Day with an innovative initiative to highlight the 17 Sustainable Development Goals through painting and creativity. For that purpose, it has enjoyed the cooperation of three other cities belonging to the UNESCO Network: Bilbao, Creative City of Design; Viborg, Creative City of Digital Arts and Havana, Creative City of Music.

Within the mission entrusted by UNESCO, Llíria maintains its commitment to culture as a vehicle for local development, international cooperation and awareness regarding the 2030 Agenda and sustainability. On this occasion, together with Bilbao (Spain), Viborg (Denmark) and Havana (Cuba), all of them Creative Cities, Llíria selected 17 artists to express their vision on each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, each one of them using the pictorial technique of their choice.

Havana has contributed in a very special way with the music that accompanies the virtual exhibition, composed by the Cuban maestro Rodrigo García Ameneiro. It has contributed as well with a work by the painter Alberto Hernández, inspired by SDG number 13 (Climate Action). Viborg, Creative City of Digital Arts, participates through the vision of the Danish painter Susanne Ahrenkiel, inspired by SDG 4 (Quality Education). Bilbao, Creative City of Design, expresses its vision through two of its painters: Ione Larrañaga, with SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and Paul Caballero, with SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

The exhibition, which has been open to the public in Ca la Vila – a 17^th-century building that houses the City Council –, served as a tribute to the local painter José Manaut, coinciding with the 50^th anniversary of his death. April 15, World Art Day, a video as a virtual exhibition with all the paintings has been launched from the digital channels of Llíria together with the rest of the participating cities.

The artists that have participated representing Llíria City of Music are Rodolfo Navarro, Beatriz Carbonell, Weronika Zerdzinska, Fina García, Francis Montesinos, Blai Tomás, José Antonio Campos, José Arnau Belén, Juan Antonio del Campo, Daniel Escarabajal, Gonzalo Romero and Stella Manaut.

The exhibition closed this with a performance in which the artist Rodolfo Navarro painted live, for two hours, a painting with a new vision of the circle that represents the 17 SDGs.