FLORENCE, ITALY.-During the VI edition of the Florence International Biennale of Contemporary Art which took place from 1-9 December 2007, Antoine Gaber presented the latest developments in the Passion for Life program.

Antoine Gaber, Canadian artist and researcher, is involved in the fight against cancer and is the founder of the Passion for Life program which amongst other things organizes exhibitions all over the world. International artists exhibit their works in prestigious locations with the aim of both getting funds for the research against cancer but also to increase awareness about the illness itself. In every country where the exhibition takes place, the collateral events are organized in collaboration with a local cancer charity or association and the funds raised go directly to them. For example, those raised during the exhibitions in Italy went to the Meyer Foundation and in particular, to the onco- haematology department of the Paediatric Hospital Meyer, Florence. In Mexico, conferences were organized in various universities: Magna University, Universidad UT and the Universidad Anahuac, in the state of Quintana Roo, to specifically raise awareness amongst the students.

The 840 artists present at the Biennale coming from more than 70 countries attended this presentation of Passion for Life. Supporting Antoine Gaber in this lecture were the President of the Biennale, Pasquale Celona, the Director of the Biennale, Piero Celona and the actress Anne Archer who, in the same day had awarded the Biennale with the prize “Artists for Human Rights”, for having sustained the United Nations program “Dialogue between civilizations” to which the Biennale has officially participated since 2001.

Antoine Gaber was delighted to be able to meet some of the Passion for Life artists who were also participating and present at the Biennale. The meeting with them also demonstrated how cancer is an illness we have all heard of and, as Gaber himself said “almost all of us have experienced, or in first person or through a friend, the loss of a family member or friend, a person close to us have been victim to this terrible illness. The objective of the Passion for Life programme is to increase the prevention and sustain scientific research. Only with this prevention and scientific research can we hope to beat it”.