Tools For After is a cultural project that won the first Capitali della Creatività [Capitals of Creativity] competition, promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aimed at both the Italian Cultural Institutes and the Italian diplomatic-consular network, worldwide. The project, created by Angelo Gioè, the current director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Beirut, and curated in its entirety by architect Maurizio Corrado, was presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Melbourne, the Italian Cultural Institute in Beirut (Design), and the Italian Cultural Institute in Sofia (Design), and will soon be presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrade. The initiative showcases the Italian approach to tackling the challenges of the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene is a method of reading reality. Everything is changing: the economy, how to think and make culture, the very view of the world and the human being’s place in the cosmos. The issues, fears, needs, concepts, rules, scenarios and discourse on which our culture is based have suddenly become obsolete and unusable. The point of no return is behind us; we have entered the aftermath.
What can we do? What are the tools for the after? What scenarios await us? What issues need to be addressed? We need to imagine.

TFA is a workshop of ideas, solutions, projects, imaginings, models and tools to draw a collective map of the imaginary of the Anthropocene, a collaborative exploration of possibilities, solutions and ways to deal with everyday practice. It is a call to a utopia, to develop the imaginary, to propose ideas, and to build a survival manual for the world’s coming transformations, an atlas of solutions, a range of strategies.

After Tools for After Design at Sursock Palace this last spring, the Italian Cultural Institute of Beirut, in collaboration with Metropolis Art Cinema Association, presents Tools For After Cinema, a selection of the most interesting proposals of new Italian cinematography, presented to Lebanese audience. The six days of cinema work around themes related to the Anthropocene. The selection was curated by Maurizio and Antar Corrado, along with Elisa Roncalli.

Science Session 1 

MELT, by ESA (European Space Agency), 30 min

This is a documentary that follows ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and a team of glaciologists and climate experts on their journey through the Alps to discover how rising global temperatures are affecting glaciers. The documentary features stunning footage of the Gorner Glacier and interviews with climate specialists who explain how we can monitor glaciers using both satellite data and in-situ measurements.

Production Year 2021

IMAGE
CREDIT: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2022), processed by ESA
LICENCE: CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO or ESA Standard Licence

UNCERTAIN GARDENS, by Emilio Tremolada, 77 min

Through a range of experiences and lived in nature, Uncertain Gardens captures the intimate dilemma of the contemporary garden and its practitioners. Pushing the boundaries of the roles in which today’s garden has become unraveled, Uncertain Gardens asks what is the totality to be recomposed. Without judgment or sentimentality, Uncertain Gardens gathers the silent movement of vegetation in urban areas, the patient industriousness of the person who raises queen bees, the decades-long gathering of forgotten fruit varieties, the mystical creativity of a sculptor of bones and stones, the dedication of ordinary people in the collective cultivation of vegetables, or of the individual person in tending the garden in a way that does not harm the earth. The film features Lara Amalfitano, Benedetta Berardi, Carla Leni, Francesca Bettini, Isabella Dalla Ragione, Lorenz Kuntner, and the gardeners of the San Faustino garden. Uncertain Gardens seeks to answer the question that has always puzzled gardeners: what makes a garden a garden?

Direction: Emilio Neri Tremolada

Music by Andrea Inchierchia

Production Year 2022