Also this year, Umbria is opening its best spaces to host the seventh edition of the Umbria Green Festival, an art project that brings together energy and environmental experts, scientists, artists and philosophers to talk about sustainability and talk about the future. From August 24 to September 18, 12 municipalities, 150 guests and over 55 interventions and performances will be united by an ideal path in which science, philosophy, literature and art become a repository of voices, perspectives and insights to help imagine and design the world we live in.
After the introduction to the festival, which took place on July 9 at the Roman Theater of Carsolae, in Terni, starring writer Paolo Romez and his “Song for Europe”, the official opening of the festival took place on August 24. Last time in Montone (PG), Francesco Montanari (vocals) and Stefano Di Battista (saxophone) paid homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini, then moved to Spoleto, where actor Marco Paolini, at the Roman Theatre, presented his show “Sani! Theater in Brackets” (exclusive for Umbria ).
Paolini himself, along with Icelandic writer Andre Magnason, the protagonist, were on Friday 26 August at the splendid location of Palazzo Cesi in Acquasparta, for an interesting dialogue, “Time and Water,” a title referring to the homonym for Magnason himself, released In Italy in 2020 (Iperborea). The book, intertwined family stories, talks, interviews, and poetry, provides a literary and evocative account of the disturbing scientific data on climate change and melting glaciers, immersing them in a shared cultural heritage, to monetize them with meaning. To enrich the topics covered, Magnason also presented two documentaries “APAUSALYPSE” and “DREAMLAND” (national exclusive) for the occasion.
Moderated by Malcolm Angelucci, Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Melbourne, the Icelandic writer, actor and Italian director saw, in the presence of a large and engaged audience, the connection between the possibility of human survival on Earth and the landscape that surrounds it, in grave and permanent change. The central point of thought was, in particular, the role that art could play in the transmission of scientific subjects which, despite their evidence and danger, struggle to penetrate the collective conscience: the task of the artists, this was the center of the debate, was to dramatize scientific concepts Dribbling by humanizing it. Indeed, if the “human scale” is missing, then relapse into the specific individual life of each of us, and the understanding of complex phenomena (those related to climate change and its consequences) remains smoked and unattractive, with behavioral consequences today we serve our human skin on A changing planet (drought, extreme and catastrophic weather events, damage to agriculture and the economy, etc.).
Regarding the question, Magnason (in English, translated by Angelucci) explained that although he did not believe he had any scholarly authority or competence on the subject, he considered it necessary, with his book, to give a poetic dimension to topics that would otherwise be difficult understand it. To publicize issues of fundamental importance (increasing sea pH, rising ocean levels as a result of the relentlessly slow melting of glaciers) on a global level, so that they do not remain locked in scientific information: “The very serious problems we will face – Andre Magnason added – are unfortunately To address the issue of climate change, and its consequences, I have had to draw on the legacy of my personal life (the time we see in the family dimension, the distance between a grandfather and his grandchildren, for example) to make it more pressing and understandable issues. and more perceptive and complex, which, in the abstraction of data and numbers, remains meaningless if not adapted to our true and present dimension.Scientists of today, to use a mythical image, sound like many Homeric Cassandras: they are right, they tell the truth, they foresee the future, but do not Someone listens to them, and therefore understands them.”
Marco Parolini, with his immediate and catchy expressive style, emphasized this approach and added: “The challenge for artists in general is not just to translate data and numbers into stories, but to offer everyone the ability to imagine. The artist must evoke images in the general public that are transformed into A concrete example, what is said scientifically, is still not very immediate.In particular, the dimension of time: our brain is not able to perceive the future but knows how to live only in the present: man only understands what he feels and perceives in his life.For this reason, the The work that scientists and artists have to do, combining their own skills, is to bring the issue of climate back into the current lives of individuals: we are all students and we are on a path that needs everyone.For this reason, individual awareness, correct but individual behaviors are worthy and useful, but Not so decisive: it is up to politics, understood as a collective action to plan for the future and for the common good, to avoid the inevitable wars which we as adversaries will see, i.e. men on opposite banks vying for water, the most precious commodity, and which runs out. It is more accurate than good politics to hope for a peaceful and balanced future world, to change the paradigm and fundamentally question the current paradigm of economic development.”
The stage of the Acquasparta dell’Umbria Green Festival ended at 9 pm with the beautiful display, also in the Palazzo Cesi, entitled “History of Impressionism: Reflections of Water and Light” (national exclusive): A story of pictures, words and music, a central moment in art history, directed by Professor Marco Goldin (narrator), Remo Anzovino (piano) and the Rimini Classica Stringed Ensemble.
The full program of the Umbria Green Festival is available at www.umbriagreenfestival.it. All festival events, directed by Daniel Ziparelli, by Techne Srl and the cultural association De Rerum Natura, in collaboration with the Umbria region and Arpa Umbria, are sponsored by the Ministry for Environmental Transformation, European Parliament, Asvis, from CNR of Rai Umbria. Radio 24 is a media partner. The main sponsor is Intesa San Paolo. Also among the proponents are the STG Group, Tarkett Spa, and Terni’s integrated water system.
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