Specials

As soon as I was appointed Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, one of my priorities had been to create continuity in the Institute’s activities both as a presence in the American cultural fabric and in the promotion of the Italian language.

Every event that we organize, as well as those organized with other museums, surely would have had more of an effect if they had been accompanied by a written catalog that could serve as a future reminder of the event. Here, the idea of creating the Quaderni of the Italian Cultural Institute’s exhibits was born. They would be divided in two sections: one section for art that paid special attention to our art exhibits and a literature section that highlighted the cultural contribution of several luminaries who gave lectures or book presentations at the Institute.
Toward this end, during the course of our building’s renovation I “discovered” several real treasures: interviews dating back to 1960 given by renowned authors such as Eco, Bassani, Ungaretti, Silone, Pasolini, Calvino – to name a few – that will soon be published by Charta, complete with drawings by contemporary artists both on paper and on compact discs.
The Quaderni will not only be in Italian but will naturally be translated into English because it is important to broaden the audience to include those who are part of the American cultural world. To translate from Italian also means – and which reminds me of a conversation with Eco – reinterpreting and readapting so that a foreign reader becomes a participant, while remaining faithful to the spirit in which the work was composed.
Speaking of language, I believe that Italian must re-appropriate its specificity. For cultural, economic, and social reasons of course English, Spanish, and subsequently Chinese will be the languages of the future, but Italian must, and I underline must, be the language of art just as it is still the language of music. The history of our heritage is such that we Italians sh
ould be the first to impose the use of our language onto the descriptions of artistic movements whose origins lie in Italy. The richness of language signifies cultural stratification and density of emotions which should be translated in such a way that Italian occupies a privileged position thanks to our artistic tradition.

* Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of New York.