Arti liberali is an original project in which some of the great protagonists of the scientific, artistic and philosophical scene create a virtuous short-circuit capable of expressing new ideas.
Conceived by Carmelo Rifici as part of the LAC edu programme, Arti liberali is a true format that combines the theatrical form with a popularising action and aims to rediscover the importance of the human being's creative freedom and freedom of thought. In a historical moment like the one we are living, the intent is to stimulate a profound reflection on the role that the “liberal arts” must play in facing a completely unprecedented reality.
The project, with a specially created set in the Sala Teatro, hosted illustrious personalities.
Fabiola Gianotti, Director of Cern in Geneva, and the Strega Prize-winning writer Paolo Giordano discussed the importance of keeping the exchange between art and science alive. Telmo Pievani, philosopher and evolutionist, together with David Quammen, writer and populariser of science known globally thanks to Spillover, the book with which he described the pandemic we are currently experiencing in 2012, discussed the relationship of the human species with nature. The British Nicholas Ridout, lecturer in Literature and Experimental Theatre, with Romeo Castellucci, author and theatre director who has already won a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic, investigated the power of the word, capable of communicating the world as much as deforming it. Gustavo Zagrebelsky, Italian jurist and academic, former President of the Constitutional Court, and Chiara Valerio, mathematician and writer, author of the book La matematica è politica, were the protagonists of a meeting dedicated to Mathematics. In the fifth and final event, two world-famous personalities, the conductor Beatrice Venezi and the architect Mario Botta, discussed the theme of spaces, both physical and sonorous.
The evenings were presented by Sandra Sain, Production Manager Rete Due RSI
Carmelo Rifici availed himself of the valuable collaboration of Rosa Polacco, presenter of the radio programme Tutta la città ne parla on Rai Radio 3.
In general terms, the “liberal arts” are defined as creative activities requiring intellectual application and whose production, strictly non-material, is characterised by particular content values. Historically, they are contrasted with the “mechanical arts”, which require manual application - “mechanical” in fact - and whose product is an artefact of any kind.
In a nutshell, the entire course of medieval artistic production was characterised by a very slow, rising dominance of the mechanical arts over the liberal arts. This course was then sanctioned in the 16th century thanks to philosophers and artists, including Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Andrea Palladio. In the near future, the development of artificial intelligence and information technology will probably lead to the supremacy of machines over man.
It is to the latter that remains the certainty of the possibility of reformulating society by investing in philosophy and in those arts that dialogue with it and for which they act as spokespeople, in synergy with the sciences and new technologies. At a historical moment such as the one we are living through, it seems all the more necessary to reflect deeply on the role that the Liberal Arts, in dialogue with the Mechanical Arts, must play in facing up to a completely new reality.
