SUMus's founder speaks at Future Cities Forum in Venice

Above: Hélène Molinari, founder of SUMus (courtesy Teatro San Cassiano)

Future Cities Forum is delighted to welcome Hélène Molinari, founder of SUMus, a humanist association and community of volunteers who share the vision of a more sustainable and caring society. It is based in Venice and is engaged in innovative projects to allow people to live in harmony with the planet.

.Hélène Molinari is an engineer by training and at AXA Group, she participated in the creation of the asset management subsidiary AXA Asset Managers. She became Head of Marketing and E-Business and then joined the Management Committee as Director of Brand and Communication worldwide. She joined Laurence Parisot at MEDEF as Deputy Managing Director, and member of the Executive Council. In 2012, she became a founding member of the Woman of Influence Award and in 2013, joined several boards of directors and was also a founding member of Asia Now, an Asian contemporary art fair. She is involved in many associations: "Nos Quartiers ont des talents", "Entreprendre pour Apprendre ", "Tout le monde chante contre le cancer". In May 2020, she founded SUMus and became its president.

Hélène describes the philosophy of SUMus:

'A profound change in society is already underway. It is to accompany this gestation of the future that SUMus was created. It is a humanist association, independent and open to all those who believe that the time has come to change our view of life and to modify our relationship with the living for a happy tomorrow. Its objective is to initiate, co-construct and promote with as many people as possible, a new regenerative and therefore prosperous paradigm, allowing everyone to live in harmony with themselves, with others and, more broadly, with the planet, nature and animals. This new model, profoundly respectful of the living, will gradually induce technological, agricultural, economic, financial, educational, media, artistic changes, etc. and will gradually draw a new society in full health in which it will be good to live and flourish. Citizens, businesses and communities will work for overall well-being, in a caring and responsible ecosystem. The new generations will be involved and their aspirations taken into account in order to bequeath them a "regenerated, revitalized and sustainable" world that responds both to our search for meaning and to the necessary sustainability of the planet.

'SUMus considers that it is at the level of cities and villages that the mutation can take shape. Given the race against time in which global challenges put us, SUMus considers that Venice has incredible qualities to initiate this movement of humanist renewal, and by its universal side can influence other cities. We propose to all Venetians at heart or origin, individuals, associations, private and public sectors, to unite to co-build their future around a pioneering and avant-garde platform where it will be good to live in harmony with the Living! 'Venice has a highly strategic asset: water that is at the origin of life, water that is also the memory of the world. Venice and its archipelago form a world "in itself", intimately linked to its lagoon and marine environment. Environmental balance has always been a primary concern. Water, lagoon and marine fauna and flora will be at the heart of bio-inspiration and constitute one of the main pillars of life on which the renewal project will be based. Its architectural beauty, its cultural treasures, its craft traditions of excellence, its atypical universities, the products of its lagoon, its car-free lifestyle, as well as all the immediate challenges it faces (rising sea levels linked to climate change, depopulation, mass tourism, economic diversification, etc.) make Venice both a universal place and a highly symbolic city. It is also an incredible sounding board for spreading the guiding principles of a more awakened humanity.'