The National Festival of Cultures: a complex Italian project mainly conceived to foster communication among people belonging to different cultures and religions. .
The Festival is structured into about 30 events such as conferences, seminars, training courses, performances, concerts, radio forums, video productions, gastronomic events, and tournaments. This festival was born as a response to the profound cultural changes that impose on Italy more and more as the migratory phenomenon unfolds with it’s several influxes from North Africa, East Europe, and from the so called “emergent” countries. Significant demographic changes and modifications of the collective thoughts and opinions are invading the nation as it confronts the destiny of its roots and its own cultural identity. The path is often difficult with some unavoidable stumbling blocks and reversals of direction.
The answer to this confrontation is not homogenous and often manifests itself in aloof behavior, instability, and protection of one’s own securities. This may result in intolerance, indifference, rejection, insecurity, and xenophobia. It is therefore necessary to build a climate of listening which leads to respect and provides support for educators, administrators, and citizens in general. The Festival pursues this aim and, being a “forum super-partes”, is a physical and ideal place in which to start an open, honest, positive discussion without hypocrisy. In this way it is possible to include the “apocalyptics” in a constructive way by providing challenging meeting and dialogue opportunities which avoid marginality and forms of indirect exclusion.
Why the National Culture Festival?
In spite of the variety of efforts put forth from the
bottom upwards and vice versa, there are still many dead-end situations in the
form of the repeated expression of stereotypes and prejudices, the evident
manifestation or hidden expression of xenophobic behaviours. There is also the
presence of auto exclusion, a-social reaction, and dangerous violence that
undermine dialogue as well as the already precarious social and economic
equilibrium.
In such context , deeply conscious
that we are facing a long and disjointed process, with unavoidable stumbling
blocks and reversals of direction, The National Culture Festival fits into the
cultural debate going on, placing itself as an additional but not exhaustive
answer to the demand of shedding light on the subject.
The Festival is first of all born
for giving virtual and concrete place, with an a-political, impartial,
multidisciplinary character. We have said born but also grows with “democratic”
contributions, as an instrument to be set up and be perfected in opera, capable to register social
change without hypocrisy, permitting a serene discussion of the divergences,
rendering more flexible and open the visions of the world and the compared
generations, with deep respect for individual and collective identities and
values.
Four editions the Festival prove a
basic tenet: “ communication is (never) bad” and reciprocal knowledge is
fundamental in order to decide consciously what answers to give to the deep
questioning of the post-modern society.
Festival Aims
Which aims should the festival
pursue? In addition to the fundamental
demands above some other accessory demands should be added. In an attempt to
list them all together we suggest a scheme. The festival proposes:
·
To delve into
theoretic debate on the deep cultural changes which confound the post-modern society,
Italian in particular, encouraging the awakening to the questions raised by the
recent migratory influxes.
To create an ideal
“place”, a
physical and virtual place with an a-political, impartial, multidisciplinary
character.
·
To encourage
communication and dialogue among people belonging to different cultures, beliefs, religions,
confessions in order to not restrict oneself to the language of the other only,
but rather to prepare activities which promote the discovery of background.
·
To develop reciprocal
attention promoting
the discovery and re-discovery of
alterity.
·
To agree to open,
honest, constructive discussion without hypocrisy, so that the divergences may
be met peacefully.
·
To contribute to the
training of the leaders, called to highlight equality in political actions, without stereotypes,
prejudices, put-downs, or lack of information. Thus, the Festival promotes the
clarification of knowledge considered, often incorrectly acquired and the
comparison between cultural and religious systems by promoting the editing of
essays and works published on the topic.
·
To act as an “example” of cultural self-representation of people, groups and subgroups
(ethnic, cultural, religious…) often hetero-selected groups, who promote
listening to and recording of direct and “different” evidences, not mediated by politics and the classical
instruments of communication.
·
To promote
interpersonal relationships through the direct meeting
of people who have often been concealed behind cultural paradigm stereotypes.
This target is connected to the serious intention of offering real occasions of sharing, in which by mutual consent,
expectations, fears, and difficulties are discussed.
·
To support educators engaged in cultural integration with
projects available to the school world. This target lies at the base of the many formative
projects of the Festival, aimed at the skill training for the use of different
ways and means of communication.
·
To construct and provide a tool (to be set up and improved) capable of promoting dialogue.
·
To produce, to sustain and to publicise possible different paths of dialogue in
case of conflicts.
Reference principles
The National Festival of Cultures in
its target pursuit agrees to some reference principles.
·
The Festival wishes to cultivate a “childlike” spirit of openness in the
face of complexity and of “real”
transformation. It suggests for this aim an honest approach, able to
superimpose micro and macro “revelation” without anxiety in the presence of chaos.
It urges a dynamism that embraces and analyses the personal and
collective identities in a multiple and balanced way. The Festival does not
suggest truths or solutions. It does not cultivate superficial illusions of “panacea”, but suggests readings and
active interpretations that encompass the complexity. For this aim it rejects a
rigid approach and rather cultivates a spirit of continuous looking to the
future through the eyes of the visionary, the adventurous, the playful, even
foolish while at the same time maintaining discipline.
·
The Festival firmly intends not to
diminish the individual foundations, to refuse a fake
pluralism, a premature levelling of
differences. Instead it
underlines the communities without concealing superficially or the most thorny
aspects. This principle is dictated by the experience of the inter-religious
dialogue which teaches that by hiding or
debasing the differences it brings to the implosion of the dialogue itself, to
a fruitless relativism that does not remove the obstacles, does not conduct to
the hoped-for results, does not assure stability. The Festival concedes that
the differences are not the ones capable to prevent dialogue; it is not
necessary to lighten or to abdicate our own
identities to achieve peaceful targets. To the interlocutors involved
this is offered, in an atmosphere of deep mutual respect. This approach
regulates and unites the paths offered within the Festival which intends to be
an instrument for the sincere and constructive dialogue, based on a pedagogy of
difference, capable of associating mankind without cancelling his personal
story, the deep foundations which demand to live and not to be forged. The aim
of the Festival is not therefore to look for a common denominator but it is the
research for harmony and pacific coexistence between people and various
cultures. To avoid all misunderstandings, it is nevertheless necessary to
understand the distinction between “foundations”, what we regard as
fundamental, important, essential, and “fundamentalism”, in other words, the
behaviour of intolerance which is in the name of its own foundations to crush the others’ rights.
To adhere to some foundations does not therefore mean to cancel or exclude
the other or to debase convictions on the fundamental and vital questions which
mankind has always and will always investigate (such as the meaning of life,
the origins and the end of the world…) matters that have to be protected with
extreme delicacy. The respect of foundations should not be thus confused with
fundamentalist activities capable to create grounds for racism, nor should it
be confused with rigidity, with the subsiding of aberrations and persecutions,
with the contempt of the other’s dignity, of a difference to be eliminated in
order to avoid a dangerous discussion. The Festival wants to avoid this drift
and with simplicity and humbleness wishes to bring back the debate on the human
and interpersonal level, leaving to the “foundations” a level of dignity and
real respect.
·
The Festival promoters have always considered themselves essentially “a net” bringing into communication
private citizens, institutions, experts in mediation, academic staff, teachers,
students, the world of associationism, and religious communities. The net
thickens with each edition, enriches and assumes new shadings.
·
Although the Festival has always relied on public and private
institutions which have supported it with enthusiasm, from it’s first edition
the Festival has strongly upheld the
emergence of proposals from the bottom up, from the civil society, from
those that daily live the “inclusion question”, often without having the ways
and means to face conflicting situations.
·
The festival builds a receptive
climate far from ineffective and immature good feelings, from a false acceptance which conceals
stereotypes, prejudices, an empty, superficial “tolerance” that recalls the
etymology, to that “tolero” which refers to a weight unit.
·
Being well aware that it is not possible to force an accepting attitude
and initiate a path with those who are hostile to dialogue itself, the Festival
pursues the agreement of “apocalyptics” to
explicit reservations, personal and of groups, with the purpose of
listening and understanding the profound closing explanations. In order to do
this in a constructive rather than a distracting way, to not risk becoming
chaotic, and to behave without a concrete purpose, it is therefore necessary to
protect the dialogue itself from the stumbling blocks, the reversals of
direction, and from the obstacles placed by anyone who erects himself in an
intransigent, extremist, irrevocable way.
·
The festival has always cultivated a
multidisciplinary approach, with the conviction that in front of the deep
cultural modifications going on, the answer strategies must be variegated,
creative, capable of a multidimensional
reality, reaching a variety of
complementary knowledges, disparate expressive forms, capable of
rendering fruitful the debate away from the (useless) categorisations or
hierarchical systems.
·
The Festival organisation with its numerous
events pursues a principle of
simplicity, persuaded that the contents must be privileged and must not be
hidden or misunderstood by complex forms of communication. This logic has never
been of detriment for the quality of the events nor for the involved experts’
competence, often of high prestige.
·
No matter how many activities of the world of
University, Research, Theoretic Speculation, Training Courses, there are, The Festival
devotes a privileged attention to the
expressive forms that deeply affect the collective imagination such as
music, dancing, photography, cinema and audio-visuals in general. An important
role in this re-discovery path is also assigned to food and sports, media
capable of drawing out and awakening the
interests of the most reluctant people.
·
The Festival wishes to encourage deep personal sharing by the involved actors,
safeguarding the surfacing of emotions, considered a key point in fostering
mediation and dialogue. To be avoided are expressions of romantic
sentimentalism, or a pragmatic “scientific” approach. In order to perceive this
end, without conciliatory attitudes and illusions, the festival promotes a
research of the language “of the heart” declined in various articulations and
expressions. We could define that
language using the universal etymology and “emotional” meaning of “movere”, “moving from…towards something
or somebody”. To concretise this principle it is nevertheless necessary to add
some “good will” by the creation of physical/ideal places including the natural
passage of time in order not to force the situations.
·
The Festival organises in each edition activities and projects addressed to the
new generations, believing it necessary in order to give voice to the
future citizens who will live in a more and more multi-ethnic world and who
will always have to deal more and more with the inter-religious debate. For
these reasons some courses such as
teacher training, intercultural projects in schools, are organised and
calibrated with the language, methods and goals designed for lower and upper level
students. Experience shows how fruitful and
optimistic it can be to supervise the energies of a dialogic path
towards education, to work with new generations and with people who are “open
minded” and “open hearted”, willing to take up the challenge of living
together.
·
The Festival is based on voluntarism.
Economic remunerations are not considered for any expert involved, even the
famous international ones. This gratuitous
element guarantees the lack of conflict of interest for the participation
of intellectuals, mediators, academic Professors, religious exponents who are
sincerely motivated to give a personal contribution to the dialogue.
·
The Festival
wishes to include and to involve
in an active way all the participants as they search together for
participatory elements, offering an adequate place to “foreigners” so as not to
leave them as extraneous in either the planning or action phases. The suggested
activities are devised in collaboration with various institutions, authorities,
associations, and religious communities in order to enhance the sharing, to
enable transversal readings with light alternative points of view, and assure
both correct access to the information means and the inclusion in the
organising process.
·
The Festival is engaged in a “cultural front”
which has become by now both collective and media property. However, it wishes to capture also the attention of
the “unenthusiastic” ones, in other words, of those who take the time but do not participate in an active way
in the debate. Those participants may prefer not to assume a personal position
on these urgent themes which both concern the entire community and radically
determine our future.
·
In spite of the intention to help the
cultural debate, the Festival lies
outside the political arena, not because of disregard (in its etymological
meaning) nor for mental reservation, but rather to foster both an attitude and
the expression of those who are sincerely involved but do not intend to refer
themselves to any political group or any factions, removed from electoral
dynamics and easy exploitations.
·
The Festival pays a lot of attention to lexical and semantic common
language education often used in a simplistic and superficial way by
citizens, public and private
administrators, and journalists. Words that are not always only words but on
the contrary are powerful instruments, occasions for misrepresent, potential
conductors of disinformation, cultural stereotypes, match for conflicts
deflagration. To this purpose the Festival wishes admonish the media present to
be particularly careful as to language and content, and to reject the voice of
dangerous intolerance.
Strategies applied and activities in “agenda”
The National Festival of
Cultures, in order to pursue its targets of fostering communication and
inclusion, has applied and perfected over the years numerous strategies for
handling and preventing conflicts, and various ways and measures for achieving
a significant collection of ideas and actions. As far as the contents are
concerned, each Festival edition is structured into about 30 events of various
natures which rotate on a base structure of consolidated appointments:
The Conference “for the art
of listening”, free entrance, of a
multidiscipline character, subdivided into 3 thematic sections: one dedicated
to the academic world and to theoretical speculation; one dedicated to the intervention procedures
utilised by institutions; and one to the immediate witnesses of the immigrants,
conceived essentially “to treasure the experience in mind”.
Seminars: During each edition the Festival
realises theme seminars, free and open to a public of experts involved in
various disciplines (for instance: Food
and Globalisation; Woman and Globalisation; University and Brain Drain;
Evolution of Familiar Cultural Models; Religion and Violence…)
Exhibitions: Each edition of the
Festival presents photographic exhibitions and theme pictorial exposures which
involve research institutions, religious communities, world associations (for instance: The Life of Man in
Religions, Women in Cultures and Religions, the World of Immigration through
the Childrens’ Eyes, the India of Contradictions, the Images of the Alterity,
The Book of Inter-religious Peace…)
Training
courses and specialisation: Each Festival edition offers both training
courses and specialisation for free, addressed to public employees, educators,
business managers but also open to sensible citizens, interested in fostering
new abilities in the mediation field.
Culture award: Within the Festival a
person who has devoted himself to the dialogue between cultures and religions
is identified and receives an honour. The nominee is designated by a national
commission made up of experts in dialogue and mediation, academic Professors,
and Religious exponents.
Video
productions: In collaboration with departments
and university centres, the Festival carries out both documentary videos and
interviews in order to give voice to those engaged in an active way in the
inter-religious and intercultural debate and also to give voice to those who
are deprived of media accesses.
Prize contest: The festival
promotes a “you and I in front of the mirror” prize contest organised in
numerous sections with the idea of encouraging constructive reflection on the
alterity. Some possibilities which reflect personal methods and original themes
are: respect, people of different culture and religion who live together,
tolerance, your own concept of diversity, the complex perspectives of globalisation.
Intercultural
and Inter-religious Dictionary: The Festival has supervised
the “Intercultural and Inter-religious Dictionary”, an important editorial
effort conceived to foster a climate of sharing and dialogue which correctly
divulges terms that have become already familiar but often misused. For this
ambitious project, an open field of ideas, academic Professors, Italian or
foreign sector experts, researchers of various disciplinary fields have
persevered to foster an exchange of ideas. The Dictionary is not only a popular
and scientific text, open to enrichment with the passing of time, but it
represents a real ideal place for dialogue, an opportunity to reflect and to
suggest innovative and creative solutions in handling conflict.
Performances: The Festival is convinced that the artistic
and musical forms can be capable of drawing together cultures and spreading in
a privileged way such values as respect and sharing. Thus, it leaves a lot of space to these
artistic expressions. Each edition organises courses of concerts (“music from
all over the world”) and quality performances, choosing as a venue for the
events historical palaces, antique Churches, picturesque landscapes in the
historical city of Pisa which is rich on art and history. We may also add on that culture of “Tuscany”
which is open and tolerant.
Results
In these little but intense
years of activity what results has the festival of Cultures achieved? Even
though the path seems long and full of obstacles, and even though the welfare
effects are barely quantifiable, the festival has shown much potential and has
obtained a diffuse credibility and has been recognised for its merits:
Firstly the festival has reinforced a basic principle, useful for social
and administrative politics but also for theoretical and academic research, that the basic problem on which to work is
that of diversity. Various participants in the Festival have shown that it cannot be useful for the dialogue in
a peaceful perspective to “entrench” themselves in the differences, nor to
debase them. These differences should not allow men to grow apart but on the
contrary help them to improve not only from the genetic point of view.
The path undertaken of simplicity
and sincere respect of “fundaments” has been shared and highly regarded, especially in the area of the events
regarding the inter-religious dialogue. A common agreement has been
demonstrated towards the principle “Diversity
both on values and cultural identities but not on rights and dignities”.
The respect of alterity, it has been recalled to us from all the places and in
many occasions, it does not mean the cancellation of personal and collective
identities of he who identifies himself with certain principles, a certain
faith, or certain religious experiences.
The Festival has been acclaimed for having
organised a complex net between universities, the world of research, public
and private institutions, world association, and religious communities.
The Festival has achieved the target
of including in an active and democratic way different segments of the
Italian and foreigner population, including immigrants in its projects in
search of a deep relationship with the Italians. The numerous events organised
proved how inclusion can be efficient
During the activities the organisers have had the chance to focus and to test directly the obstacles in the dialogue
(for instance the persistence of prejudices, the lack of preparation of the
management staff trainers, the reciprocal request). Experience has taught us both how
difficulties shouldn’t be understated while strategies must be aimed and
adapted in relation to its target.
Encouraging
results have been
obtained in the area of educational
projects aimed to increase the predisposition of listening and to enhance
the ability to relate to one another. Particularly gratifying are the results
obtained in the school world involved in various inter-cultural projects. The school has accepted with enthusiasm the
offered paths, showing a praiseworthy attitude by the teachers and an innate
predisposition by the new generations towards alterity.
Reassuring
answers of active participation have reached the conferences or seminars
ambits where among the experts or Professors, less expected minorities as
groups of women, housewives, and the unemployed have joined in and have offered
for the community of academics and experts disposal, emotions, doubts and
mental reservations which anchor the discussion in reality.
The performances and concerts in the Festival programs have always
gained widespread success reinforcing that the expressive forms are a powerful cultural mediator, able to lighten the
burden of a cultural modifier situation often perceivable as awkward and
irritating.
The most appreciated recognition
from the organising committee is that of having
created the chance to serenely smooth the way to both the debate and the
interpersonal relation, putting on the same table, in front of the same
expository panel, under the same roof, people that hardly would have sought or
found an opportunity of meeting. The Festival experience has demonstrated how
essential it is make possible a balanced meeting, in which there is a deep
relation with someone, without the fear of noticing the differences and our own
limits but on the contrary learn to see the beauty that lies in every man, and
learn to value the “gift” of alterity.
The festival with its own approach super-partes
(impartial) has helped to overcome the frame of thoughts, expectations, and
stereotypes. Although only partially it has obtained one of its targets: to
unveil the beauty and uniqueness hidden in every man. It’s a real task, not
impossible. The only way is to be embraced with enthusiasm and a wish to give,
not only to receive.
Translated by Caterina Greco
