Bergamo Brescia 2023, Mattarella: Culture unites and multiplies. It is a great wealth

Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture 2023 opened today with an institutional opening ceremony, kicking off the many events that will take place throughout the year in the two Lombard cities.

From the Donizetti Theater in Bergamo, President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, live on Rai, opened the inaugural ceremony with a speech on culture addressed to all present and to all spectators: "Culture is a great wealth. It comes from life, from the community, from the nature that hosts it, and then it returns to people, to the next generations, as sap, as civilization, as genius and value. Culture is not a separate sphere of human activity, almost a surplus of it. It is the knowledge gained from experience. It is the thinking that is built up in study, in comparison, in research, in work. It is the excitement of representing life; it is an enrichment of the values that characterize humanity. Brescia and Bergamo are an example of this with their civic virtues of yesterday and today," he began.

"Culture, knowledge, and the arts, in such difficult times as we are going through, stand, once again, as indispensable points of reference,“ he continued. ”We are reliving in Europe the tragedy of war, which we hoped would be placed forever in the archives of history after the horrors we knew then. And it is precisely putting the integral dignity of the person at the center of all action that leads us to stand on the side of those who are attacked and fight for their independence and freedom. We are aware that in building a just peace, culture, in its universal dimension, is called to play a role, in bridging distances, in rebuilding respect and coexistence, in uniting people."

“There will be many events and exhibitions in these spaces in Brescia and Bergamo, as well as theaters, cinemas, music and dance environments will offer opportunities for meeting, reflection, joy, beauty. Reserves of that humanism which is in our DNA, and which we have the task of enriching and spreading, in order to offer and hand over to young people a path of life, which they will have to independently develop” [...] "Culture is also courage to overcome presumed antagonisms, to climb over walls, to break out of the box. Courage to enlighten the city, as the slogan you have chosen, loaded with meaning, indicates. Cities are sediment of a history, but they continue to walk, to progress. They do not remain the same. They produce light, they feed on light. They propose goals and values."

"Culture is closely connected with freedom: of study, of research, of expressing one’s thoughts,“ he concludes. ”The exercise that Brescia and Bergamo, Capital of Culture, are about to undertake is, therefore, a great exercise of freedom, which the whole country will be watching. My wish for Bergamo and Brescia, Capital, and their citizens, is to be protagonists of a new dialogue that will look to the whole of Italy and Europe. Happy New Year, of Capital of Culture."

Bergamo Brescia 2023, Mattarella: Culture unites and multiplies. It is a great wealth

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