Cultural News

Genworth Rewards Milan's Young Visionnaries

Six Month Extension of Dreams of a Possible City exhibition announced at prize ceremony

A creative competition capturing children's vision of the ideal city has been organised in parallel to the exhibition, which is being hosted by Fondazione Stelline and sponsored by Genworth Financial, in collaboration with the Lombardy Region and municipality of Milan. Pupils of more than 20 classes (of both private and State schools) in Milan and its Province took part in a the competition which ask them to depict: "The city I would like.to see, hear, read, live".

The three Milanese students who won the prizes for their original “ideal city” projects are:

• Category “Primary School”: Giacomo Mastantuono from Primary School  “A. Mandelli e A. Rodari”, Milano, Class 5a A
  Reason: This work is creative, original and, above all, practicable: Giacomo presented a real “executive project” for its ideal city. It’s a funny skyscraper shaped as a “fusillo” (editor’s note: kind of Italian pasta) reporting a detailed explanation on the structure and goal.  
  
  
• Category “Secondary School”: Sabrina Emasi from Secondary School  “Istituto Comprensivo A.Fermi”, San Giuliano Millanese (MI), Class 2a D
  Reason: the work presented by Sabrina Emasi proposed an imaginative panoramic view from the sky on an ideal but possible city. Buildings, schools, sport grounds, but also a river, bridges and a likely urban layout. This work is distinguished from the others for the maturity and quality of the execution.  
  
  
• Category “High School”: Eleonora Musicco and Francesca Iorio from High School “Liceo Artistico Sacro Cuore”, Milano, Class 2 Artistico
  Reason: The originality of this work consists in the representation of the ideal city as a place imbued by history . The brief story and the illustration used in the project are inspired by the city of Milan, mixing present and past in an imaginative and constructive way, thus demonstrating that the ideal city can exist based on the fusion between present and past.

• Alessandra Klimciuk, Artistic Director at Fondazione Stelline said: “We are so proud that, through our association with Genworth Financial we have been able to support a project in the spirit of a most noble tradition – Filarete, Leonardo and the ideal of the city.  Th anks to the great success of this exhibition, we have decided to extend it until we will find a new ideal city to house this site specific, incredible and poetic work.”
• Pasquale Spani, General Manager for Genworth’s Lifestyle Protection business in Italy, added: “The children of Milan have truly reflected our mindset of ‘Think It Possible’ in their spectacular vision of the ideal city.  We hope that our socio-cultural sponsorship with the Fondazione delle Stelline will leave a lasting legacy for the City of Milan.   Dreams of a Possible City has also allowed Genworth to reach out to business partners and our community in a new and refreshing way”.

  The jury for the creative competition was composed of :

  • President: Grazia Massone, President of the cultural association OPERA D’ARTE
  • Massimo Uberti, Creator of the work Tendente Infinito
  • Pasquale Spani , Country Manager Genworth Financial Lifestyle Protection
  • Camillo Fornasieri, Presi dent of Fondazione Stelline
  • Ilaria Barbieri Marchi, art dealer N.O. Gallery

  Genworth Financial was honoured to be recognized for its role in Dreams of a Possible City,  being named as the most original sponsorship of the year by Publico magazine.

# # #

About Dreams of a Possible City

Massimo Uberti’s neon site-specific project is a dream of an infinite ideal city, whose star shape is reminiscent of the layout of Sforzinda, the ideal city designed by Antonio Averlino, known as Filarete, around 1465 White neon was chosen as luminous symbol of our cities’ modern, nocturnal vitality. It is a marriage between an idea from the Renaissance and strong contemporary elements.

About Genworth Financial
Genworth is a leading financial security company meeting the retirement, lifestyle protection, investment and mortgage insurance needs of more than15 million customers across 25 countries.In Europe, Genworth partners with banks, brokers, advisers and other financial institutions to develop innovative mortgage insurance, payment protection and other products to suit local markets.  For more information, visit www.genworth.com

# # #

Media contacts:
Marta Maradini, tel. +39.02.77.888.71; marta.maradini@lifonti.it
Valentina Santoro, tel. +44. 208.3802059; valentina.santoro@genworth.com