The square, non-places and the town. FilosofArti 2014 is here.

 FilosofArti is about the agora, the square as a place in which to gather and debate, but also about “non-places”, as described by the French philosopher, Marc Augè. Exhibitions, lectures, and films will give life to the tenth FilosofArti, the week dedicated to philosophy and the arts, organised by the Gallarate associations and museums; this year, for the first time, the occasion is part of the programme of Officina Contemporanea (see photo on the left, from twitter@officincont). There are ten days full of events, until 17 March, with the first event this Saturday, the exhibition dedicated to Palazzo Minoletti, the functionalist building designed by Giulio Minoletti, which, for 70 years, has stood in Piazza Garibaldi, in Gallarate.

FilosofArti 2014 marks the beginning of the programme of Officina Contemporanea [OC], the project realised by ten organisations that operate in Gallarate, in different fields of contemporary culture and that will be organising festivals, meetings, conferences, exhibitions, concerts, shows and other cultural events, until 2016.

“FilosofArti is getting bigger and bigger; even two years ago, there were events organised in Busto Arsizio involving the associations from that town,” said Cristina Boracchi. The first [OC] initiative of great importance was also presented, on behalf of the Cariplo Foundation, by Andrea Mascetti, who explained the reasoning behind the call to involve networks in urban areas, which was conceived by updating and rethinking a model already tried and tested by the Foundation in small towns and rural areas. “Urban areas are more problematic from the social and anthropological point of view of architecture.” Officina Contemporanea aims to create culture in today’s complex fabric (and the urban culture is possibly the most complex contemporary form). FilosofArti is closely linked to the long, extraordinary experience of the Teatro delle Arti, a hall of the Christian community that is, however, open to the world and has become a place par excellence in which to meet and debate, in Gallarate. Even Monsignor Ivano Valagussa (the dean of Gallarate, see photo) explained that “Culture is about giving yourself an identity, while the world is becoming increasingly fragmented, and at the same time, not forgetting solidarity.” This is a strong appeal to the idea of the square and of the town as a place in which to “meet, not necessarily to agree, but not to disagree either.” Continuing, in part, the study of thought and art that has been created by FilosofArti, at the core of Officina Contemporanea, there is the idea of exploring “all of the languages of contemporary creativity,” said Emma Zanella of the MAGA, Gallarate’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Gallarate and Busto Arsizio, the two towns that provide the venues for FilosofArti, were represented, respectively, by the Councillor for Culture, Sebastiano Nicosia, and the Deputy Mayor, Giampiero Reguzzoni, who also described the investment in culture as a way of re-launching urban areas, also in terms of cooperation between the two towns.

The festival, which was conceived and organised by Cristina Boracchi (the “soul” of the initiative, with the increasing support of new volunteers) is dedicated to the topic of the square/communication. Like every year, the programme contains shows, conferences, exhibitions, meetings and concerts that combine philosophical reflection with figurative arts, the theatre, cinema, music, writing, dance and much more, with the participation of important people in the fields of culture and art, including Marc Augé, Umberto Curi, Philippe Daverio, Umberto Galimberti, Maurizio Nichetti, Francesca Reggiani, Carlo Sini and Gianni Vattimo.

“The square, whether it is physical/architectural, or symbolic, is also a topic of the festival, which continues the intention to reflect on how identity, on a personal level, as well as on a collective, cultural and territorial level, is alone the essence of the wealth of those who are different from us, the meeting with whom takes place at times and in spaces and events that create real and virtual ‘squares’,” explained Cristina Boracchi.

The varied FilosofArti programme is divided into five sections.

The first, “L’agorà del pensiero”, will present a series of lectures, including one by Philippe Daverio (Monday 10 March, 9 p.m., Teatro delle Arti, Gallarate), who will deal with the development of Italian towns from the point of view of civil and commercial architecture, and one by Umberto Curi, entitled “Con le ali ai piedi”, on the myth of Hermes (Monday 17 March, 9 p.m., Teatro delle Arti, Gallarate); Umberto Galimberti (Monday 12 March, 9 p.m., Teatro delle Arti, Gallarate) will talk about Relationships and Communication, and the French sociologist Marc Augé, the theorist of the non-place, and his Italian colleague, Giovanni Gasparini, a lecturer at the Catholic University of Milan (Sunday 16 March, 4.30 p.m., MA*GA, Gallarate), will discuss everyday life today, that is, the life of gestures, expectations and habits that is often excluded from academic studies because it is not considered to be very interesting.

L’agorà del pensiero will also include a series of meetings, for example, one with Massimo Bernardini (Sunday 9 March, 6 p.m., Centro Giovanile Stoà, Busto Arsizio), the co-author and host of “TV Talk” and “Il Tempo e la Storia” on the television channel RAI3, who will talk about how Italian television has changed over its 60-year lifespan, from the first trials to the era of the social networks.

Another meeting will be with Gianni Vattimo (Friday 14 March, 6.30 p.m., Liceo Crespi, Busto Arsizio), the theorist of “weak thought”, who will concentrate on the media society, which is throwing into crisis the classic concept of truth, which is being replaced by the concept of information. Moreover, at the Teatro delle Arti. in Gallarate (Thursday 13 March, 10 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.), there will be a workshop on Communication studies; a theoretical, epistemological and neuro-scientific view, with Carlo Sini, Fabio Minazzi and Michele Di Francesco.

The section “L’agorà teatrale” will present shows that will delight a varied audience, from small children to adults, with Francesca Reggiani as the main character in 50 Shades of Francesca (Saturday, 8 March, 9 p.m.; Gallarate, Teatro Condominio “Vittorio Gassman”). In her theatrical/conversational show, the actress takes her audience on a journey through the numerous faces of the spiritual, social, relational and sexual crisis that Italy is currently going through. Special attention will be paid to projects dedicated to schools, of which, we recommend, at the Teatro delle Arti in Gallarate, the showing, by Lions Gallarate Host and Seprio, of the film Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue by Giacomo Campiotti (Monday, 10 March, 10 a.m.); Ouvertures des saponettes, a “soap bubble concert” by Michele Cafaggi (Friday, 14 March, 10 a.m.); the ballet Don Chischiotte, based on the character created by Miguel de Cervantes, and performed by the students of the ballet school Proscaenium, featuring a number of dancers from the Scala Theatre in Milan (Sunday, 16 March, 3 p.m.). The Apology of Socrates, a political dialogue par excellence, written by Plato, is performed by Luciano Bertoli, in the production by the theatre company Compagnia Carlo Rivolta; each performance will be preceded by the lesson by Franco Trabattoni La sapienza umana di Socrate, The Human Wisdom of Socrates (Tuesday, 11 March, 9.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m.; Wednesday,12 March, 9.30 a.m.).

There will also be an abundance of music during FilosofArti 2014. The programme of “L’agorà coreutico-musicale” will include initiatives such as concert-lessons, for example, Chamber Music, Instrumental Sonatas and Vocal Lieder of W. A. Mozart and F. Schubert (Sunday, 9 March, 4 p.m.; Gallarate, Chiesa di San Pietro), Transcriptions in the Chamber Repertoire (Tuesday, 11 March, 5 p.m.; Gallarate, Istituto Musicale G. Puccini), and Evolution of Violin and Piano Sonatas from late Beethoven to C. Franck (Sunday, 16 March, 4 p.m.; Gallarate, Chiesa di San Pietro).

Jazz will be at the heart of the Jazz & Movies night. Musical Philosophy in Cinema (Friday, 14 March, 9.30 p.m.; Gallarate, Planet Soul – Il Melo) will include a concert by Paolo Tomellieri, clarinet, Carlo Bagnoli, baritone sax, Fabrizio Bernasconi, piano, Marco Mistrangelo, double bass, Tony Arco, drums, and Irene Natale, voice.

Art and cinema will be compared in “L’agorà delle immagini”. A number of exhibition initiatives will be linked to the particular theme chosen for this year’s FilosofArti. At the MA*GA Museum in Gallarate, Emanuele Becheri’s artistic/music performance, entitled Impressioni 09.03.2014, will take place on Friday, 14 March, 6 p.m. This work is based on a survey carried out by this artist from Prato, over the last few years, on music, the image and the live performance, in which Becheri will interact, in real time, with the images and the showing of a film. The event Ripensare il moderno (Saturday, 1 March, 10 a.m.; Gallarate, Palazzo Minoletti), in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Milan, will present a series of suggestions for reusing and making the most of Palazzo Minoletti, in Gallarate, which was designed by the architect, urban planner and designer from Milan Giulio Minoletti (1910 – 1981). Storie distratte, Distracted Stories, is the title of the personal exhibition by Raoul Iacometti (inauguration: Sunday, 9 March, 5 p.m.; Gallarate, Il Sestante Fotoclub), a photographer from Milan, whose work ranges from news reporting to food and beverages, from interior design to landscaping. Villa Delfina in Crenna (inauguration: Friday, 14 March, 6 p.m.) will host the watercolour paintings that Giorgio Pomella produced for Touring Club Italiano and the publishing company De Agostini. The subjects are the Squares of Italy, highlighting the beauty of their architecture. In Busto Arsizio, from 14 to 16 March, the workshop on street art will entail Alice Pasquini producing mural paintings on walls around the town, together with young artists taking part in the course.

Actor and director Maurizio Nichetti (Thursday, 13 March, 9 p.m.; Gallarate, Teatro delle Arti) will be presenting one of his most famous and appreciated works, Ladri di saponette, Soap Thieves. The story is of a film director who is presenting his new, neorealist-inspired film, on television: the misadventures of a family of workers after the Second World War, with clear reference to the plot of Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette, Bicycle Thieves. As a result of a sudden blackout in the television studio, the advertisement characters and the director himself become part of the film, and the story that had taken place until that point completely changes. At the end of the showing, Maurizio Nichetti will discuss, with the audience, the power of cinema and advertising, to create collective spaces of images and desires.

The pleasures of the table will be the protagonists of “L’agorà conviviale”. Among the many initiatives, there are: the fair market, Laltrocibo (Sunday, 9 March, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Gallarate, Cortile di Palazzo Broletto) and the gastronomy evening, with tasting (Thursday, 13 March, 8 p.m.; Gallarate, Restaurant “Saperi e Sapori” Istituto Alberghiero I.S.G. Falcone), entitled Cibo di Strada: la sala come piazza; tasting areas with live music.