The Head of State celebrates the two cities at the inauguration ceremony. In connection the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano
Next 18 March, at eight in the evening, the bell towers scattered across the 7,500 square kilometers of the Bergamo and Brescia areas they will all together broadcast 10,140 strokes. Adding municipality by municipality in an unpublished example of land music, this is the number of victims of the pandemic here. Two generations largely mowed down by the virus and that people do not forget because, as Karl Rahner explained in the Theology of the Dead, those dead are a living part of their history and belong to the present. For them, therefore, the verses of Attilio Bertolucci are valid: Absence / pi acute presence.
Thus, it is no coincidence that the project to unite these cities (epicenter of Covid in the first wave) as the Capital of Culture for 2023 has risen on the idea of culture as a cure. A challenge that the whole community feels the need for, which wants to start hoping again, after the desperation of so much mourning and suffering. A therapeutic itinerary (let’s also define it in this way, thinking of the anxiety and bewilderment caused by the nocturnal processions of coffins carried by the army to distant cemeteries) which began on Friday 20 January with the visit of the head of state to Brescia for the inauguration. Among the people waiting for him at the Teatro Grande, the representatives of the institutions and the 205 mayors of the province. The ceremony was split into a video connection with the Donizetti Theater in Bergamo, where the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, was a guest, who also speaks of an antidote and qualifies the initiative as a great experiment in cultural policy.
Given that the pandemic, after having marked an unpredictable and dramatic break in continuity, is now regressing, Sergio Mattarella honors the virtues of Bergamo and Brescia. Above all for the spontaneous model of solidarity which has made it possible to face the crisis and to prove, since last year, the relief of the restart. Even if – he recognizes among the applause – this heart of Lombardy, in reality it had not stopped. In short, theirs was much more than a form of passive resistance.
Its a moral reparation, sure. But it goes beyond symbolic meanings. In the thought of the president it must become an opportunity. In these parts as elsewhere. Innovate, look to the future, trust in man’s ability to know how to overcome adversity, have given life to a concrete path which is now finding further sanction with the start of a year which sees Bergamo and Brescia together as the Capital of Culture.
Here is the memorandum on which his reflection hinges and which weighs heavily on this land that has always been proud of its identity. A self-awareness from which a strong cultural imprinting has sprung. I mean a big one wealth that comes from life, from the community, from the nature that hosts it and then it returns to subsequent generations as sap, civilization, genius and valour. For him, culture is not a sphere separate from human activity, but knowledge gained from experience, the thought that is built in study, discussion, research, work. And which, in this specific case, is supported by a proverbial tenacity, as well as good government practices. Places where – and he lists them – publishing houses, research centres, foundations and festivals alternate, testifying to which excellences a healthy business culture can lead.
For a year now, the tragedy of the war in Ukraine has been added to the aftermath of the pandemic, which has led Italy to take the side of those attacked and fight for their independence and freedom. Mattarella mentions it to recall the role that culture can play in bridging gaps and allowing for the construction of a just peace. It is a question of making the most of what has happened “amassing reserves against the winter of the spirit”, he says, citing the definition that Marguerite Yourcenar dedicated to the warehouses of culture, to museums, art galleries, libraries. This is a synthesis of the one hundred events and exhibitions that in the year that opens on Friday in Bergamo and Brescia will offer opportunities for meeting, reflection, joy and beauty. Reserves of that humanism which is in our DNA and which – he insists – we have the task of enriching and spreading.
It is not enough. Explaining the strong signal of unity and innovation launched by Procida, the head of state recalls the slogan with which that small island celebrated its year as capital, 12 months ago: Culture does not isolate. Slogan that he takes up in his own way: Culture unites and multiplies… a strength of bell towers that of knowing how to unite and not divide energies. You gather, in the north of the country, the same witness of Procida, confirming the unity that strengthens Italy.
Finally, to seal the 75th anniversary of our Constitutional Charter, Mattarella allows himself a historical reconstruction, succinct but revealing. When the Constituent Assembly discussed whether to include the promotion of culture among the fundamental principles, there was no lack of doubts and some resistance. But the Republic solemnly assumed that task. And it appeared article 9: “The Republic promotes the development of culture and scientific and technical research. It protects the landscape and the historical and artistic heritage of the nation”. The protection of the environment, biodiversity and ecosystems has recently been added. A rhetorical ploy to underline how crucial the weight and value of culture have become.
Minister Sangiuliano: hence an antidote to suffering
Culture as a dynamo, a catalyst element that will give impetus to a social and economic rebirth of two cities and their territory to make known to the world. Thus the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, at the Donizetti Theater in Bergamo to inaugurate, in conjunction with the Teatro Grande in Brescia and with President Mattarella, the year of the two Capitals. Sangiuliano cited article 9 of the Constitution, extremely farsighted, and then Croce and De Gasperi, Aristotle and Le Corbusier to give strength to the concept that sees culture as an antidote to suffering and a driving force to restart when necessary to rebuild. A restart that from Bergamo and Brescia, yesterday a symbol of suffering in times of Covid, today of a new resurgence that passes through beauty, looks ahead and is confirmed as the first major cultural policy experiment aimed at supporting the growth of the territory through hundreds of multifaceted initiatives, but also looking at its economic, social and industrial development. The mayors Giorgio Gori (Bergamo) and Emilio Del Bono (Brescia) and the governor Attilio Fontana also spoke about the two different but joint cities.
January 20, 2023 (change January 20, 2023 | 21:17)
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