“There is too much unacceptable harassment, illegal pressure in the world of work and discrimination” in Italy. This was declared by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, speaking at the Quirinale on March 8. In his speech, the Head of State also recalled Giulia Cecchettin, killed on November 11 by her ex-boyfriend, and all the victims of femicide. “How can we not remember it – he emphasizes -. How can we not remember above all Giulia Cecchettin, whose tragedy plunged the whole of Italy into horror and pain? It has been said many times – even at that time – that profound cultural action is necessary for everyone to acquire an authentic sense of the relationship between women and men: art is an effective and driving vehicle for training and transmission of values. of life. Therefore, today we pay homage and express our gratitude to the artistic protagonist of women,” says Mattarella.
Women and art
“Women in art” is the theme chosen for the International Women's Day 2024. “A theme – specifies the President of the Republic – which aims to highlight the feminine contribution to the imagination, to the creativity of the arts. A contribution of great importance – and too often neglected, even sometimes ignored – in one of the fundamental sectors for the very life of humanity. » For Mattarella, art “is not an escape from reality, it does not represent the superfluous,” he says. Indeed: whoever evaluates it thus, according to the Head of State, “has a narrow and distorted vision of existence and denies at the root the very nature of the human person, his innate and irrepressible desire for research, of inspiration, of interpretation of reality. Art – he reiterates – is an essential part of the history of humanity. Without it, the world would be gray and dull. »
The artistic protagonism of women after the Jorit affair
Even in art, Mattarella recalls, “the history of humanity has developed for a long time in a sense of male predominance: this has caused civilization to lose inestimable resources of sensitivity and artistic value. Art comes directly from the human soul, it is a universal language capable of communicating, even after centuries, deep emotions and enlightening thoughts.” And among the many works, a painting, a poem, a musical score , a song, the President of the Republic does not leave behind Street artist. “Our Constitution declares with effective simplicity that “art and science are free.” Art is freedom. Freedom to create, freedom to think, freedom from all conditioning. Its revolutionary potential lies in this attitude – he continues –: and it is no coincidence that authoritarian regimes view artists with suspicion and monitor them with spasmodic attention, spying on them, censoring them, even incarcerating them. Dictatorships try by all means to promote an art and a state culture, which are nothing other than an art and a culture of a fictitious regime, which rewards the servility of official singers and punishes and represses authentic artists. . » declared Mattarella, the day after the Jorit affair. : There Street artist The Italian found himself at the center of a controversy for having asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for a selfie to “demonstrate – according to him – his humanity”.
Meloni: “Art is free, I have never shared the censorship of the left”
Giorgia Meloni “also agrees” with the President of the Republic's comments on the fact that art must always be free. Indeed, the Prime Minister responded to those who asked if she shared Mattarella's comments: “Of course”, specifies Meloni, before attacking the left: “I have never shared a certain censorship that, for example , the Italian left has long practiced anyone with whom they disagree with them.
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