2024-01-20 12:52:00
An ovation lasting over two minutes, with the entire audience on their feet – eight thousand people at the Vitrifrigo Arena – greeted the entry of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, into the Pesaro sports hall for the inaugural ceremony of ‘Pesaro, Italian Capital of Culture 2024’ . Also in the front row of the audience, with the Head of State, were Gennaro Sangiuliano, Minister of Culture, Francesco Acquaroli, regional governor of the Marche and Matteo Ricci, mayor of Pesaro. The Olimpia Orchestra, composed entirely of women, after the Italian anthem and the European anthem, performed the Symphony of Rossini’s ‘Gazza ladra’.
“Culture is not consumption, but passing of the baton between generations”
“In addition to being a legacy of the past, culture is above all present and future, not simple consumption of what is casually available: it is a passing of the baton from one generation to another” said Mattarella. “The passing of the baton – continued the Head of State – is one of the most important tasks that belong to a community and its civilization. A great moment of civilization, as well as a duty. Creating culture means creating works of genius. ‘ The fact that we continue to dream – wrote the anthropologist Roger Bastide – confirms that creation remains to be completed. For Pesaro – concluded Mattarella – an industrious dream begins today. A dream supported by the commitment to concrete achievements”.
“Europe has returned to living with peace and in peace. The extraordinary season of cultural creativity of the second half of the twentieth century is the result of that choice. That promise of peace generated freedom and equality, also allowing the word ‘fraternity’ to be revived ‘ -which the French Revolution had raised on the flagpoles, and then obscured in the evolution of social conflicts, by the insurgent nationalisms, by the claim to reduce the will of the people ‘ad unum’, by the will to power. These are crucial questions which call rulers to take responsibility. Responsibility that involves communities and people, no less than states. But peace is also a great theme that concerns culture. Culture is a leaven that can regenerate peace. And with it the human values that wars tend to erase, drowning them in hatred, rancor, revenge, induced by nationalistic extremism”.
“At this moment talking about culture, thinking about culture, transmitting culture – added the Head of State – means raising our gaze, for a far-reaching task. Because culture is patient sowing, especially in the new generations. Because culture it is beneficially contagious and allows us to reflect on history so as not to fall back into the mistakes of the past. It allows us to admire art, beauty, ingenuity, aware that aesthetics cannot be separated from an ethic of respect for the person”.
“Italy brings together a large number of places of culture: from the most remote centers of our province to important cities. This chain is much more than a theory of sites displayed in shop windows, indicated to be discovered and visited. It is the expression of plurality of the cultures that make our homeland so attractive and that make our identity inimitable”. “It is – added the Head of State – a route of great value that crosses Italy and highlights the ancient and robust roots of each of our places and our centres. Roots which must, therefore, be valorised and preserved , in their peculiarity. Roots which, all together, contribute to defining the image of our country”.
“Sustainability is a name for peace”
Pesaro proposed “as the theme for its year as capital: ‘The nature of culture’. Nature, its balance to be reconstituted, reconciliation with the environment, seriously violated and exploited, are also urgent objectives of civilization and of peace – said Mattarella -. The destruction of resources cannot be labeled as development but must be indicated as regression”. “Sustainability – continued the Head of State – is a name for peace. Culture is knowledge. But also conscience. It takes intelligence and courage to break new ground. This year Pesaro aims to make art, nature and technology interact. ‘Artisans of the imagination’ is one of the slogans: combining the craftsman’s doing with immaterial culture and creativity.”
“Hatred affects our consciences more than weapons”
“We are going through a difficult period, dramatic in many respects, in which man seems, obstinately, intent on destroying what he has built, on vilifying his own dignity” said the President of the Republic. “The wars being fought on the borders of Europe concern us. Not only because the wind of death, destruction and hatred travels distances even more rapidly than weapons do and affects our existence, our economies and above all on our consciences. They concern us because Europe, reborn after the war, has inscribed the word peace in its identity”.
“Public powers and large corporations cannot create a single thought”
“Many will come to Pesaro, from every part of Italy, Europe, from other places, to meet you, to learn about your historical-artistic heritage” said the Head of State. “It is a consequence of that circularity of culture which does not tolerate restrictions or boundaries, which demands respect for the options of every citizen, which rejects the claim, whether of public powers or large corporations, to direct sensibilities towards the monopoly of a thought unique”. “If culture is knowledge, creativity, emotion, passion, feeling, well, it is the basis of our freedoms, including – added the Head of State – that of being together”.
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