Adelina von Furstenberg, president and founder of Art for the World.

The Art for the World foundation and non-profit organisation has for the past ten years collaborated with the United Nations to create cultural projects on a global scale in extraordinary settings.

Does art need a setting ?

I have always organised the meeting of art, artists and settings that have historic and cultural resonance and that were not originally intended to house contemporary art. Art gives life to life and prevents us from dwelling on the past.

What mission do you bring to art ?

Contemporary art needs to go beyond the commercial and accomplish civic and social purposes.

A personal quest ?

I will go to any lengths to have extraordinary experiences and art is something that makes the ordinary extraordinary. It's also a cultural heritage in my Eastern bourgeois family. The arts were part of our education and of everyday life.

What has got you where you are today ?

It's important to think in terms of the future. It's an essential quality for any professional.

What recognition has made you happiest ?

After 10 years of exhibitions in New York, Sao Paulo, Rome and New Delhi, Art for the World was recognized by the United Nations as being the only non-profit organisation that, through contemporary art, civilizes, integrates and makes people think.

When did you start to follow the artistic path ?

With my first exhibition in Geneva, which was called Promenade as a tribute to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in the Lullin Park on Lake Leman. Then there were Parcours Privé in the courtyards of the Marais and Meditations in Marrakesh in the Medersa Ben Youssef. The Armenian monks have twice hosted Art for the World on San Lazzaro island in Venice. The island is a perfect setting for art. But the foundation has developed many other projects, including Playgrounds & Toys, or more recently Femmes (Women), a project that will leave Geneva in September 2005 for the Palazzo Strossi in Florence and, in 2006, Brazil.

Does hedonism require a nomadic lifestyle?

Art and the exhibitions I organise allow me to live in several cities at once, and thus to have several lives. I immerse myself for several months in a borrowed way of life. This exploration is the opposite of running away. I'm like those plants that can grow anywhere without laying down roots nor creating a forest, but that leave their seeds.

A place to renew your energy ?

Hydra. It's a small-scale city without cars, an ideal urbanism where friends always live across the way. This artists' island was famous in the 1960s when it attracted Leonard Cohen and many others. I go back every year to renew my energy and my enjoyment of life.

A moment of bliss ?

The evening, overlooking the sea, in Hydra, with champagne, pistachios and friends.

Can one live on a diet of art and water ?

No, on art, the Mediterranean diet and good wine.

Is hedonism the same thing as egotism ?

Not at all: hedonism is neither excess nor egotism. It's an attitude, the ability to combine the useful with the agreeable, like cooking with other people or eating a cake with friends. It's shared pleasure. It's anti-Calvinism!