Palermo: Italian Capital of Culture 2018
It is an important year for this multi-faceted city right in the heart of the Mediterranean.
Palermo has been selected as the Italian Capital of Culture for 2018, a city with which Mapei has always enjoyed an incredibly good relationship and which Mapei has helped embellish and renovate down the years through its products.
As mentioned during the opening ceremony for Palermo Italian Capital of Culture 2018, which was held on 29th January at Teatro Massimo, Palermo’s beauty and richness comes from all the different dominions that have ruled over the city and the flow of people coming in and out of the city all the time, resulting in an extremely fruitful exchange of culture and customs. This can clearly be seen from the cityscape, local language, city monuments, cuisine and urban fabric.
The event is not just a rich schedule of happenings but also a project taking culture as “capital” to be used for developing the entire community.
Culture in all its different facets, not just artistic culture but also a culture for peace, welcoming outsiders, legality, business, innovation, young people, the environment, charity and diversity; all this by bringing together institutions, associations and many other key players in local civil life, moving beyond the city’s boundaries and creating a closer synergy with the metropolitan borough and entire region.
Palermo is ready to showcase its various treasures, some better-known than others, for the entire year, entertaining people with concerts and shows of the highest calibre and astounding anybody not yet familiar with its cultural hyper-activism.
The focus of the entire schedule of events planned is Palazzo Sant’Elia, where a Mediterranean-shaped reflective table called “Love difference” designed by Michelangelo Pistoletto has been installed after being brought from its usual home in a large meeting room at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome.
Among the most eagerly awaited events is the opening of the “Camera delle meraviglie” (Cabinet of Wonders), a charming and mysterious Arab room discovered in a private apartment in the Ballarò neighbourhood.
The city streets came to life as they hosted folk concerts from 9th to 10th March to celebrate dialogue between different cultures, an event that culminated in the all-night opening of the UNESCO sites on 10th March.
But all this will not come to an end after the city’s year as the Italian Capital of Culture draws to a close. Palermo is, in fact, organising an additional 24 special projects to be completed by 2020, ranging from the opening of Al Medina al Aziz Park that will accommodate Palazzo della Zisa, Zisa gardens and various Zisa cultural sites, to the creation of a House-Museum of Rights, a project for a multimedia contemporary art museum focused around the issue of human rights.
SAVE THE DATE
Next year will be Matera’s turn to show its treasures as the 2019 European Capital of Culture (see Realtà Mapei International no. 67) while in two years Parma will be in the spotlight: this city located in Central Italy was chosen as the Italian Capital of Culture for 2020.
