A century ago the Institute of culture. The Italian primacy of Prague – time.news

by time news
from PAOLO VALENTINO, our correspondent in Berlin

The Czech capital celebrates with various events the anniversary of the birth of the progenitor of a network that today has 84 offices, to which Almaty, Amman, Bangkok, Hanoi, Miami and Sarajevo will be added

On Thursday December 1st, the Piccolo Teatro di Milano will be on stage at the ABC Theater in Prague Dante’s voices, with the participation of Toni Servillo

and text by Giuseppe Montesano. a contemporary reinterpretation of Commedia Dantesca, which here speaks of human desires, anxieties and passions of every age and place.


The one in the Czech capital will be one of the key events of the celebrations for the centenary of the opening of the Italian Cultural Institute in Praguethe first in the world and progenitor of a network that today promotes the language, lifestyle and culture of our country abroad with 84 offices on five continents, to which six brand new ones will soon be added: Almaty, Amman, Bangkok, Hanoi, Miami and Sarajevo.


It was against the background of the great political and cultural vacuum left by the disappearance of the two central empires, German and Austro-Hungarian, overwhelmed by the defeat in the First World War, that France and Italy launched cultural penetration initiatives in Central Europe, of which the newborn Czechoslovakia was the load-bearing element, a hinge between the two western and eastern halves of the Old Continent. For Italy, in 1922, this translated into the foundation of the Prague Institute.


Initially linked to propaganda functions, above all during the Fascist period, the role of cultural diplomacy however changed
radically after World War II, becoming a strategic asset and increasingly embodying that soft power, without which today it is no longer possible to have a foreign policy worthy of the name. In the changed international scenario – says Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano, who heads the Directorate General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Farnesina -, the promotion of the Italian language and culture is framed in an ever wider European dimension: enhancement of our cultural identity and diffusion of the values ​​of democracy, active citizenship and dialogue go together to consolidate the construction of an identity that goes beyond national borders.

Initiated in Prague on 16 November, the program of celebrations includes, in addition to the show on 1 December with Servillo, a concert by the San Carlo Theater Orchestra conducted by Maurizio Agostinion December 18 at the Rudolfinum Auditorium in the Czech capital, and the setting up of a spectacular Neapolitan nativity scene in the Chapel of the Italian Cultural Institute.

But the Prague events will also kick off a calendar that will continue throughout 2023, with an ambitious catalog of initiatives, which the Foreign Ministry will make available to the network of cultural institutes. Among these, the photographic exhibition dedicated to the Italian UNESCO sites, with works created by the greatest Italian photographers of the twentieth century, such as Gabriele Basilico, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Mimmo Jodice and Ferdinando Scianna. In February, then, the traveling exhibition will start from Singapore The Great Italian Visionselection of works from the Farnesina Collection curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. Music will also have its place: Jazz It Abroad should be mentioned, an initiative modeled on the Jazz Diplomacy launched in 1956 by the US State Department during the Cold War and still very active: the Farnesina project, coordinated by Italia Music Export, will support the foreign tours of jazz musicians selected through public tenders by an independent international jury. Last but not least cinema, with the Italian Screens project, in agreement with Cinecitt and the Academy of Italian Cinema, for the presentation in the Italian cultural institutes of films nominated for the David di Donatello Awards.

November 28, 2022 (change November 28, 2022 | 21:21)

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