WORLD BEE DAY

Inspired by Andy Warhol’s famous happenings, Alessandra Mattanza had the idea to create an opening day for “Animals for Social Justice” art exhibition involving different arts, and artists. And to choose, 20 May 2026, World Bee Day, to dedicate it to the bees, some of the most amazing animals of the planet.
Alessandra created so 3 videos dedicated to the bees, “The Dance of Bees,” “Bees Around the World,” and “Bees Bliss,” which she put together in a “Bees Compilation.” Studying the bees for this project, she found out that the bees do a real dance.
The “bee dance” refers to a complex set of movements honeybees use to communicate. The most famous of these is the WAGGIE DANCE, a figure-eight pattern performed by foragers to share the precise location, distance, and richness of a food source with the rest of the hive.
The dance can be decoded as follows:

• Direction: The angle of the “waggling” straight run relative to gravity correlates to the position of the sun outside. For example, if a bee waggles straight up, it means the flowers are directly toward the sun.
• Distance: The duration of the waggle (and the buzzing sound) represents
how far away the food is. Roughly one second of waggling equals about one kilometer of distance.
• Quality: The intensity and enthusiasm of the dance tell other bees how abundant or high-quality the nectar is.

Beyond the waggle dance, bees use a few other distinct movement sequences to coordinate hive operations:

• Round Dance: Used when a food source is very close to the hive (typically less than 50 meters). The bee runs in narrow circles, alternating directions, to communicate that food is close, though it does not specify the direction.
• Shake Dance: Foragers will vigorously shake their abdomens in front of other bees to excite them and recruit more foragers to the waggle dance floor when a highly rich nectar source is found.
• Tremble Dance: When foragers bring back more nectar than the hive can process, they walk slowly around the nest trembling and quivering. This acts as a signal to other bees to stop foraging and start helping process nectar into honey.

For the OPENING DAY, on 20 May 2026, thanks to the great help of the UN Exhibits Team, Alessandra was able to open “Animals for Social Justice” with a great event. She invited the International American Ballet to take part and the choreographer, ballerina, and founder Analia Farfan to create a bee dance for her new bees video art installation, and so other artists to perform, as the Nigerian artist KANYE who did a live painting of a bee, and the artist Federico Solmi to present his new marvelous video installation.
For the OPENING DAY, on 20 May 2026, which is also WORLD BEE DAY,
“Animals for Social Justice” will open with happening events at 1 pm, with
a “Bee Dance” with digital art by Alessandra Mattanza, and a dance
performance by and the American International Ballet, at1.30 pm with a
Live Painting Performance by the Nigerian artist KANYE, at 4 pm with a
talk by Federico Solmi about his immersive experience.For the OPENING DAY, on 20 May 2026, which is also WORLD BEE DAY, “Animals for Social Justice” will open with happening events at 1 pm, with a “Bee Dance” with digital art by Alessandra Mattanza, and a dance performance by and the American International Ballet, at1.30 pm with a Live Painting Performance by the Nigerian artist KANYE, at 4 pm with a talk by Federico Solmi about his immersive experience

ANIMALS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE is an art exhibition, a multimedia art project, and a journalistic campaign, created by journalist and multimedia artist Alessandra Mattanza to inspire awareness for the protection of all animals, especially endangered species, farm animals, and pets. It aims to protect the environment and nature, emphasizing biodiversity, ecosystem health, sustainability, urban living, and leveraging innovation and AI for good. “Animals for Social Justice” also aims to identify concrete, practical solutions through partnerships with other associations, governments, institutions, foundations, and companies. It is a call to act from everyday life to a global scale, to love and protect animals worldwide.

Besides Alessandra’s digital artwork and photography, the art exhibition “Animals for Social Justice”, in partnership with THE JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE, which provided also beautiful photography, includes art by worldwide famous artists, such as the digital artists FEDERICO SOLMI (Italy/USA) who created a new video installation specifically for the art show, CONNIE BAKSHI (Taiwan/USA), HACKATAO (Italy), the visual artist KAN YEYACHUKWU TAGBO-OKEKE (Canada/Nigeria), the painter DIANA LJUNGAEUS (Sweden/ USA), the street artists ARDIF (France) and ADNATE (Australia), the anonymous famous street artist BAMBI (UK). And one artwork, “The Love Rat” by BANKSY (UK), provided by FITZ CONTEMPORARY.