Introducing Paradise Bank by Lucas Memmola for the World Food Forum 2024

Step into the captivating world of the Amazon rainforest in the immersive World Food Forum 2024 Art exhibition “Paradise Bank”. Set against the iconic backdrop of Rome’s Botanical Gardens, the exhibition is open to the public and runs from 11 October - 7 November. The installation explores the vital role of forests, particularly the Amazon, and their undisputed role in sustaining biodiversity, livelihoods and food security as well as sustainable agrifood systems. The installation highlights the intersection between art, knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and agrifood systems. The artist’s work centers on the profound connection between Indigenous People and the Amazon, with the forest functioning both as a treasure to be protected and a vital resource for agrifood systems and humanity.

About the Artist and Curator

The site-specific installation was created by Lucas Memmola, an Italian-Brazilian artist born in 1994. He is specialized in experiential art exhibitions that explore the dialogue between various elements of nature, adopting an approach to art that resembles the practices of an alchemist. Memmola's work emphasizes the interconnectedness of natural elements, highlighting how they can interact and communicate within the context of art.

The exhibition was created with the expert support, curation and organization of youth-led art association Tramandars. Based in Somma Vesuviana, Naples, Italy they have collaborated with the World Food Forum for the past two years, creating eye catching and dynamic exhibitions challenging young artists from around the world to explore and communicate complex issues of agrifood systems through their art.

About Main Sponsor EIT Food

EIT Food accelerates innovation to build a future-fit food system that produces healthy and sustainable food for all. We invest in projects, individuals and organisations that share their goals to deliver positive impact at speed and scale. By connecting stakeholders across the food system, they aim to drive change through collective learning, problem solving and invention. They focus on inclusive systems innovation, which enables all people and places to participate and benefit.

The collaboration with EIT Food is particularly relevant because, at the international level, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is the primary body responsible for combatting forest degradation and loss and works closely with the European Union on sustainable forest management such as taking action against illegal logging as well as supporting agroforestry practices beneficial to the environment.

About the Exhibition

Memmola has created an immersive installation consisting of two distinct rooms within a greenhouse in the Botanical Gardens. The first room, a sterile chamber, features safety deposit boxes, containing açaí, cacao, guarana, and Brazil nuts that symbolize some of the Amazon’s key exports. Indigenous artifacts including a ritual skirt, a spear and a bow as well as two arrows from the Shanenawá Peoples of Brazil, are carefully displayed in this room. This combination symbolizes the deep-rooted relationship between the forest and Indigenous communities.

The second room is a bank vault where warm light seeps through the cracks of the safety deposit boxes where sounds of the rainforest echo around visitors, enveloping them in nature. This part of the installation serves as a reminder of the invaluable nature of the Amazon, that is often endangered by practices such as deforestation. The installation function not only as artistic exploration but also a call to protect the Amazon’s biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples.

Youth in the Amazon

Paradise Bank also showcases innovative youth-led initiatives in Brazil aimed at protecting the Amazon and promoting sustainable practices: The Jari Amapá REDD+ Project, Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), The Givaudan Foundation and The Açaí Initiative. These projects empower local communities to create more sustainable value chains around the four exports mentioned above, providing them with support, resources and more.

The exhibition is open to the public from Tuesday to Sunday at the Rome Botanical Gardens during their opening hours from 11 October to 7 November 2024.