Those who live there must occasionally stop and reflect in order to listen to them. Those who visit them are already equipped to appreciate their atmosphere, sounds, colors and stories. Cities are part of our existence. “One of the human elements of the geographical space, (…) a cultural element, as a place of choice for the production of culture (…) one of the guiding elements of the organization of space” explains the Treccani Encyclopedia. Cities speak and feel: those who make them famous tell them in a thousand ways, sometimes they brutalize them. They are a condensation of resources that change over time, defining their environment in particular. This suggestive word of our times that makes us witnesses of epochal changes that pass right through the urban agglomerations. Can we try to listen to them, the cities? Understand the reasons for their complex events, misfortunes, but also successes?
The Francesco Saverio Nitti Foundations of Melfi and Matera Basilicata 2019 are trying to do it starting on Friday 25 October in Villa Nitti in Acquafredda di Maratea. The two institutions launch the first edition of the Festival of narrating cities. The number zero is nothing more than the story of the experience of Matera 2019, the capital of culture. The broadest setting is the centenary of the Nitti Government, (Lucano statesman native of Melfi) while the Public Branding Observatory, the IULM of Milan and the University of Basilicata collaborate on the Festival. The basic idea is to show the complexity of large urban centres. Cases, ways, events, protagonists. This year the world case of Matera 2019 is compared with interesting experiences which, from 2020, will become a broader review. The value of the initiative will be measured over time, but already today the fact that a group of thinking heads has deemed it important to dedicate two days to it, in a beautiful setting in the South, is to be appreciated. Also for practical reasons, of daily life. Enough wondering how it was possible to massacre, deconstruct, make some of the most beautiful cities in the world unlivable.
There is something. “Cities are places that tell stories. They are looms of choral, complex and composite narratives woven by societies, institutions and identities. They are places of harmonies and contradictions; spaces of light and shadow; of conflict but also of social and political recomposition, through which to aim at recognized and recognizable objectives” says Stefano Rolando, President of the Nitti Foundation. People are attracted by the spatio-temporal dimensions of the cities which give those certainties that villages and small districts cannot guarantee . An anthropized heritage that must be saved. Starting with quality, social needs and the need for a healthy, and why not, competitive environment. Protect and enhance historical, architectural and artistic treasures. Paolo Verri, director of Matera 2019, agrees with this when he argues that here there is a heritage in “continuous movement that makes cities potentially more recognizable, characterizing them for their architecture; for the natural environment, for the climate, the ability to host and produce culture”.
At the first, in addition to Rolando and Verri, the President of the Basilicata Region Vito Bardi, the mayor of Maratea Daniele Stoppelli, the rectors Gianni Canova and Aurelia Sole, the Councilor for Culture of the city of Matera Giampaolo D'Andrea will be present. Thinking about the Matera experience, they will have the opportunity to say what makes a city sought-after, a "speaking site" that welcomes and does not reject. Along this plot, the discussion panel between operators engaged in citytelling of cities who have had significant experience close to major events: Enric Truñó i Lagares (Barcelona), Radosław Michalski (Wroclaw), Marco Biazzetti (Petra). To make events effective, good communication is needed, respectful of the truth and of the peculiarities of the single city. Matera's communication staff lived up to the role assigned to the "poor capital" of the South, and on Saturday Rossella Tarantino, manager. international relations, Serafino Paternoster coordinator of the press office, Raffaella Pontrandolfi, head of digital communication will explain what and how they did to keep the media profile of Matera 2019 high. A sort of zero number for them too and the many collaborators who had the goal in front of them to attract thousands of tourists to Matera and Basilicata – many of whom have since revised painful prejudices – but also directors, musicians, writers, artists. One of these, Franz Cerami, known for original video installations on Italian and foreign monuments, will be present at the Maratea Festival. After all, its multicolored lights can do little if the urban environment and the beauties are mortified, on the other hand, they can do a lot if one takes care to cultivate them. Always.
