During UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett visit in Zaatari Camp, Jordan last April 2023, she saw how clean energy can protect and empower refugees. The largest field of solar panels built in a refugee camp is in Zaatari which function and provide sustainable energy within the camp.

More updates below with interviews and magazine covers.

?? Welcome to the largest solar field ever built in a refugee camp!

When Cate Blanchett visited @ZaatariCamp in Jordan, she saw for herself how clean energy can protect and empower people forced to flee. pic.twitter.com/wdj7yUBBqu

— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) October 12, 2023

Evolver

Evolver, the VR project that Cate Blanchett narrated and also executive produced through Dirty Films is currently having an exhibition at the Opera Gallery of the Grand Theater – National Opera in Poland which runs from 12 October to 10 December 2023.

EVOLVER begins with a short one meditation. While staying there, viewers follow Cate Blanchett’s voice to prepare for the second part – the VR experience. With goggles on, they set off on an over twenty-minute expedition into the depths of the human body. The conductor is the air taken into the lungs. Following his trail through a branching ecosystem, they reach their destination, where there is a single “breathing” cell of the organism – a living microcosm that reflects the structure of the universe. “The world flows to you, and you flow to the world,” artist Barnaby Steel sums up this experience.

The third part of EVOLVER – the epilogue, is a space for reflection on the experience. It takes the form of a gallery displaying digital works created by Marshmallow Laser Feast artists and a film expanding the exhibition’s narrative.

Exhibition presented as part of the BMW Art Club. The Future is Art at the Opera Gallery of the Grand Theater – National Opera in Warsaw, from October 12 to December 10, 2023.

BMW, as the project’s patron, makes all screenings available to the public free of charge. With this gesture, BMW follows the trend of spreading culture as widely as possible.

Invitations can be downloaded at: Boutique of the Grand Theater – National Opera and Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera and at the box office of the Grand Theater – National Opera from September 12.

It will also be at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne from 23 November 2023 to 14 April 2024 (tickets here.)

Magazine Features

Cate Blanchett wrote the foreword on Francesca Amfitheatrof’s book Fantastical Jewels. Amfitheatrof is a jewelry designer who designed the pieces from Louis Vuitton’s High Jewellery collection where Cate was the ambassador in 2022.

Time hopping is something that has defined Francesca  Amfitheatrof’s tenure at Louis Vuitton. Her century-spanning High Jewellery collections – that take inspiration from the mediaeval heroine Joan of Arc, the celestial wonder of the Milky Way, the invincibility of the phoenix and the omnipotence of the sun – now are the subject of a Rizzoli-published monograph entitled Fantastical Jewels. “She is an alchemist and an adventuress,” writes Cate Blanchett – Louis Vuitton’s jewellery ambassador – in the foreword to the book, which offers not just spectacular images of Amfitheatrof’s simultaneously graphic and fluid creations, but presents a journey through her imaginative process, like a sketchbook packed with drawings, gouaches, illustrations, photographs and moodboard references.

Fantastical JewelsMarie Claire AustraliaVogue Polska and Marie Claire GreeceVogue Polska is available now in newsstands in Poland. It can also be ordered online here.

Google translated from Spanish to English. Original text on the scans below.

What do you always say “yes” to?
Cate Blanchett: To the unexpected, to surprises. I love to hear ideas, offers or experiences that I hadn’t noticed before because they take you to unexpected places and bring new possibilities for yourself. I say “yes” to adventure. Without hesitation.

50 films later, do you think your great success is to keep working?
CB: I’m always thinking about retiring and, luckily or not, here I am. That someone you admire wants to count on you for their next project is tempting and flattering. That’s why it’s hard for me to stop. But the day has many hours and work, although I am passionate about it, is only one aspect of my life. There are many other facets that interest me and that I would like to develop. You also have to try to balance your own passions with those of the people in your closest circle: family, children, husband…

Among those projects that have nothing to do with cinema, what would it be?
CB: Taking care of my garden. As a good Australian, I’ve long been obsessed with water: how to get it naturally, what to use for watering and how…. I’m very interested in this area (her mother, we read, is a keen gardener – her grandmother was one too – and helps her in the garden at her home in Crowborough, UK, where she resides with her husband, Australian playwright Andrew
Upton, and their four children).

What’s it like to be considered a star?
CB: I don’t know what it means! When I look at someone like Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts or George Clooney, I think there’s something about them… I don’t even know how to describe it. I have so much respect for them that I couldn’t think of myself in those terms. And, anyway, it wouldn’t be my place to say it. Maybe it’s more of an American concept than anything else.

What about ‘beauty icon’?
CB: I was never the type of girl who stood out for her beauty. I don’t think physicality has been an asset for me. I’m also not someone who can be said to be beautiful in the conventional way. I can look hideous, look decent… I have fun playing with my looks as part of my job, including my ‘trip’ with Mr. Armani. Beauty doesn’t have to be on the surface, or correspond to a perfect idea. Even if you are not normally pretty, you can find it in the light you give off, in the fragility… the notion of it is expanding: it is no longer something static or someone’s point of view.

How do you keep your feet on the ground?
CB: It feels good to walk. And many years ago, Meryl Streep told me, “If you want to stay grounded, do your own laundry.” Staying connected to the simple tasks of life humanizes you: taking public transportation, getting the kids to school. Most people in the industry that I know do that. You need to have a real life. In my case, my family is a source of incredible humility. My kids (three boys and a girl, ages 21, 19, 15 and 8, respectively) are not at all interested in what I do, to the point of rudeness (laughs). When I came back from Los Angeles from picking up my awards – a Golden Globe and a Bafta for Tár -, my 15-year-old asked me (he puts on an incipiently deep teenage voice): “Where were you over the weekend?”. Me: “I went to pick up an award”. “Ah, it’s ok, will you take me to school?” This brings you suddenly down to earth.

Can you tell us your best beauty secret?
CB: Never, ever, go to bed with makeup on. You have to make the effort and remove your makeup. Although my big trick is to use sunscreen every day. Revolutionary, right?

Instyle SpainSource: BMW Art Club, Vogue