PHILOSOPHER, the festival that until 10 March 2015, in Gallarate and Busto Arsizio, combines philosophical reflection with the figurative arts, theatre, cinema, music, writing and much more, presents between Saturday 7 and Tuesday 10 March 2015 , a program full of events.
Among these we note, on Saturday 7 March, at 16.00, at the Spazio Carù in Gallarate (via Postporta), the poet and Latinist Alessandro Fo who will read some of his poems contained in the volume Mancanze, recently published by Einaudi.
The Theater of the Arts of Gallarate (via don Minzoni 5), at 17.30, will host the master's lesson by Massimo Cacciari, Francesco's 'scandal' in Dante and in Giotto. The greatest smiths of the European vernacular, the pictorial one (Giotto) and the literary one (Dante), meet in the figure of Saint Francis - almost as if their new language was born precisely from the need to represent it. But the meeting turns out to be a conflict: their interpretations of the Franciscan revolution diverge radically and yet they are unable to account for the "crucifix of Assisi", since both betray it. Yet, through these betrayals, the spirit that will mark the birth of the new Europe is affirmed.
In his book, Double Portrait. Saint Francis in Dante and Giotto (Adelphi) Cacciari moves towards the definition of 'his of him' Saint Francis in the light of a rigorous bibliographic knowledge, which passes from the studies of Paul Sabatier to those of Henry Thode. And he moves to show a more complex Francis than some postmodern interpretations, which have made him now a socialist prophet and now a New Age revolutionary. To achieve his goal, Cacciari crosses the paths traced by the two 'greatest blacksmiths of the European vernacular', that is Giotto and Dante, on the figure of the poor man. And he recounts the conflict of interpretation of the Franciscan revolution triggered by the two.
The places are already all sold out. Without the presentation of the reservation, the organizers do not guarantee entry to the Teatro delle Arti.
Particularly suggestive will be the meeting with the composer Paolo Colombo, at 20.30 pm, at the Casa della Musica, Villa Ottolini-Tosi in Busto Arsizio (via Bellini 7). His speech will focus on "Il canto delle sibille", or the spiritual concert for female choir born from the study of the floor of the Cathedral of Siena. Organized by the G. Rossini musical association. A very important appointment is that of the literary snack which sees a district of Gallarate ARNATE start the activities of a neighborhood library, set up with donations and started by volunteers to animate the reality of the district: a social housing project conducted with Critical Mas and the consortium Panizzi librarian.
Sunday 8 March, in the courtyard of Palazzo Broletto in Gallarate (via Cavour 5), from 10.00 to 17.00, Laltrocibo will be held. The solidarity exhibition-market of flavors from around the world. By the Departments of Social Services and Participation. To follow, from 15.00 pm, ethnic music, readings and flash mobs on texts by and for women by the Panizzi Librarian Consortium and the Consulta for Equal Opportunities. Book sharing will also follow: visitors are invited to bring and leave a book to receive others from other visitors: a way to 'make place' and create 'cultural intersections..
Of great importance was the meeting with Andrea Dall'Asta, a well-known art critic and editorialist for L'Avvenire, who at 17.30 in the Church of San Pietro reflects on beauty and sacredness in contemporary art, as well as the presentation at 17.00 at the Società Studi Patri of Gallarate of the volume "Presi nella rete" by R. Simone, in the presence of the author (Garzanti).
On Monday 9 March, at 17.30 pm at the Opale Holistic Center in Gallarate (piazza Risorgimento 14), Giuliano Boccali, professor of Sanskrit language and literature at the University of Milan will talk about how to feed the body, feed the mind: the Indian recipe book. In India as elsewhere - just think of the Bible or Dante's Convivio - nutrition is at the same time a great reality, with many facets, and a great metaphor, which invests the body and the mind. Particularly accentuated is also the importance of nourishing the spirit, which in India is a very different dimension from that of thought. Yet, according to the "holistic" vision that characterizes the subcontinent, research aims to keep these dimensions together, to identify foods capable of nourishing human beings harmoniously at all levels. The strategies are not unique: the lesson therefore aims to highlight some of them, from Ayurveda to Buddhism, from the fasting of the Jains to the (metaphorical) dinners of the Sufi masters. Some attention will also be devoted to intoxicating drinks, a lesser-known theme – in the speaker's experience – in relation to classical India.
At 21.00, the Sala Tramogge of the Mulini Marzoli in Busto Arsizio will host the study seminar – interreligious dialogue The Sacred in Religions. Encounter with the Absolute and communication between men. The theme will be addressed by Paolo Luigi Branca (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan), Shahrzade Houshmand (Islamologist), Giuseppe Laras (formerly Chief Rabbi in Ancona and Livorno), Ven. Lama Palijn Tulku Rinpoche (Buddhist monk, founder and spiritual guide of the Center for Tibetan Mandala Studies in Milan) and Msgr. don Giuseppe Grampa (University of Padua and Milan).
The proposal is all the more timely in a society in which authentic dialogue appears increasingly difficult, especially on sensitive issues such as religious affiliation. The contents will therefore be important, but also the style with which the guests will converse.
The speakers are scholars and exponents of Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, who have gained experience in interreligious dialogue and who possess good communication skills to interest and involve the public.
In collaboration with Liceo D. Crespi and the Deanery of Busto Arsizio;
On Tuesday 10 March, Filosofarti will close with the long-awaited concluding speech by Umberto Galimberti. At 21.00, the Theater of the Arts in Gallarate (via don Minzoni 5) will see the philosopher discourse on The footsteps of the sacred. Galimberti wonders what is left authentically religious in an age like ours which more than any other is experiencing a boom in spirituality. Beyond the shining appearances, the multi-invoked God in many languages, in many rites and in the most varied forms of religiosity, seems in fact to have definitively taken leave of the world to leave nothing but an infinite desire for protection, comfort, reassurance: it is only the bloodless rest of the history and tradition of Christianity, too backward to govern a time marked by the pressing succession of technical-scientific discoveries. By asking technology not to do what it can, Christian ethics prove pathetic. But the condition in which secular ethics finds itself in a world rendered uncertain by the fact that, today, man's ability to act is enormously superior to his ability to predict and therefore to govern history is no better. Here no "God can save us" because the technique, which does not inhabit the sacred, was born precisely from the corrosion of the throne of God.
Filosofarti, conceived and curated by Cristina Boracchi for the Cultural Center of the Theater of the Arts of Gallarate, in collaboration with the Municipality of Gallarate - Department of Culture - and of Busto Arsizio and with the support of the Cariplo Foundation.
Filosofarti is created under the high patronage of the Presidency of the Republic and with the sponsorship of the Metropolitan City of Milan for EXPO2015, the Province of Varese, the University of Insubria, the Italian Philosophical Society - Section of Varese. An important novelty consists in the adhesion to the project by the Museum of the Basilica and the Deanery of Gallarate together with the Deanery of Busto Arsizio, with which an essential proposal is developed on the theme of interreligious dialogue.
Filosofarti is a founding element in the program of OFFICINA CONTEMPORANEA [OC] – Urban Cultural System, a project supported by the Cariplo Foundation and elaborated by eleven institutions active in the city of Gallarate in the various fields that distinguish contemporary culture.
