Davos 2016: Where Leonardo DiCaprio, Will.i.am Will be Seen in Different Roles

Davos: As the rich and powerful from across the world get ready for their annual brainstorming in this ski resort town in the coming week, it will also host Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio - but not for his Oscar front-runner 'The Revenant'.

Same is the case for celebrity musician will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas fame, as also for Chinese actress Yao Chen who boasts of the largest number of fans on China's Twitter-equivalent Sina Weibo.

DiCaprio will be here at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting for his efforts in combating climate crisis, Chen for her work in the area of refugee crisis and will.i.am for his endeavors in the field of education for the under-served.

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, known for sculptures and large-scale installation art with elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature, will give them company for his work in creating inclusive communities.

The four have been chosen for this year's Crystal Awards for their exemplary leadership in 'improving the state of the world', the declared motto of Geneva-based WEF that has been holding its annual meetings here for over four decades.

The five-day annual summit will begin on Tuesday evening with the Crystal Awards ceremony, followed by a musical concert performance by acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who would be joined by Sergio and Odair Assad (Brazil), Sandeep Das (India), Johnny Gandelsman (USA), Cristina Pato (Spain), Kathryn Stott (UK) and Wu Tong (China) in a Silk Road collaboration.

Along with over 100 government and business leaders from India, the summit would host more than 2,500 leaders from across the world, including over 40 heads of state or government, who would discuss various issues affecting the world in more than 300 sessions.

Ahead of the meeting, the WEF said in a statement on Sunday that more than 40 cultural leaders will participate in discussions on topics ranging from migration to sustainable development and freedom of speech with a special focus on cultural heritage.

The participating cultural leaders include Bono (musician), Peter Gabriel (musician), John Green (author and vlogger), Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (filmmaker), Platon (photographer), Elif Shafak (author), Kevin Spacey (actor and theatre director) and Lynette Wallworth (artist and filmmaker), among others.

"Leaders from business, politics and other sectors will look to the Cultural Leaders for context, inspiration and collaboration to address the most pressing issues of our time in an inclusive manner," said Nico Daswani, Programme Lead for Arts and Culture at the WEF.

"The arts and culture in Davos are meant to bring decision-makers together, create debate, question assumptions and help imagine a long-term future together," he added.

Cultural leaders will take part in dozens of sessions in the programme on topics ranging from migration and sustainable development to cancer and freedom of speech. There will be a special focus on how to protect cultural heritage at a time of catastrophic destruction, the WEF said.

Several cultural leaders have also collaborated with the Forum to present exhibitions and immersive installations aimed at sparking debate on global issues.

A virtual reality film, Collisions, supported by the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation and Jaunt VR, will have its world premiere in Davos before its screening at the Sundance Film Festival.

The film takes viewers on a journey into the remote desert of western Australia to discover what happens when indigenous tradition meets Western science, and what we can learn from indigenous knowledge about caring for our planet for future generations.

An interactive exhibit, This Time Tomorrow, developed in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum, features designs ranging from the infinitesimal scale of DNA to the distant horizon of outer space to form a landscape of clues about the world of tomorrow.

With the theme of this year's Annual Meeting - Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution - as context, the exhibition presents six scenarios where the radical ideas of today have become the norm of tomorrow.

Additional experiences include Perspectives, in collaboration with National Geographic, which features a series of large-scale projection-mapping animations.

Using imagery by National Geographic photographers, combined with animation and sound, three different projections will explore collective responsibility on the themes of biodiversity, oceans and climate change, and cultural heritage, and will ask participants: What will you protect?

About this year's Crystal Award winners, Hilde Schwab, chairwoman and co-founder of the World Arts Forum, said, "These artists are role models not only for the cultural community, but also for the global community at large."

The theme of this year's WEF meeting is 'Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution' and the co-chairs are General Motors chief Mary Barra, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Sharan Burrow, Hitachi chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi, Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam and Al Bawsala founder and chair Amira Yahyaoui.