THE MAISON DE LA PAIX

 

CASA UNIVERSALE DELLE CULTURE

The Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture is a place strongly representative, in which will convey the knowledge of the different identities and cultures, structuring permanently initiatives aimed at the spreading of peace, necessary for the shared development.

The Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture (MdP) is a project conceived by Michele Capasso, approved by many Countries and international organizations. It is an architecture that keeps the memory of many Peace activities which created history, often more than the wars, but it is – above all – a space "to build” Peace.

The architectonical complex has an important symbolic worth: it represents the Countries of the World engaged in the Peace process and the Countries victim of the conflicts.

Proposed by the Fondazione Mediterraneo with the Maison des Alliances – together with the main adherent organizations, such as the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, the League of Arab States, the "Anna Lindh" Euro-Mediterranean Foundation and others, the MdP represents a referent point for all the ones who dedicate their lives to peace.

The symbol of the MdP is the "Totem for Peace", an artwork by the Italian sculptor Mario Molinari which the Fondazione Mediterraneo is promoting all around the world, creating the network of the "Cities for Peace".

The first seat of the MdP was inaugurated on the 14th of June 2010 (Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture) in the historical building of the Grand Hotel de Londres in Naples.

The action of the Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture aims at improving the main activities of the "Universal Forum of Cultures" in: Barcelona (2004), Monterrey (2007), Valparaiso (2010) and Naples (2013).

The Maison de la Paix performs most of the initiatives jointly with the Maison de la Méditerranée.

 

President Michele Capasso intervened at the presentation of Dacia Maraini's book "Trio", complimenting the writer for the quality of the work.
An intense and delicate novel, pervaded by the colors and smells of Sicily, which through the filter of a past never so close speaks of each of us, and of what can save us when everything collapses outside.
"Trio - Story of two friends, a man and the plague in Messina" (Rizzoli) marks the return of Dacia Maraini to the historical narrative after "The long life of Marianna Ucrìa", one of the most beloved books of the writer, poet, essayist, playwright and screenwriter among the most important in Italy who chose "her" Abruzzo, that of Pescasseroli, among whose woods in the heart of the Park, the author lives for a good part of the year, for one of the first presentations (the volume was released last June): at 6 pm, in Piazza Umberto I, the writer talked about it with the journalist of the Center, Domenico Ranieri, in a dialogue with musical interludes from the accordion orchestra “La Box del Vento” directed by Alessandro Parente.
"Trio" is an epistolary novel. To write to each other, in Sicily, in 1743, are Agata and Annuzza: their bond comes from afar, it was born when, still children, they learned the all-female art of embroidery under the severe gaze of Sister Mendola; he grew up feeding on the adventures of Cid and Ximena, read aloud together in the garden; she resisted the somersaults of fate, which made Agata the bride of Girolamo and Annuzza a young woman still free from the awe and joys of marriage. Now, while a plague epidemic is decimating the population of Messina, the two friends are cultivating their relationship at a distance at the tip of the pen, because the fear of contagion has driven them away from the city but has not extinguished the desire to be part of the one of the life of the other. And even if it is the man himself who ignites their desires, and the heart is pounding to impose their own reasons, Agata and Annuzza will be able to defend their friendship from jealousy and conventions of the world, which tells the women they have chosen better than any other feeling. to be
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The president of the Fondazione Mediterraneo spoke at the inauguration of the celebrations of Ignazio Silone and at the "Silonian literary drying rack".
Through Via delle Botteghe, where the writer's birthplace is, recently restored and close to inauguration, again through Via del Carmine where the Museum dedicated to Silone is located and then down towards the staircase, the route is June at the Fonti Vecchie, a place where Silone's tomb is located.
Along the way, it was possible to read the articles that the national and world press published on the occasion of his death and which were collected by Antonio Gasbarrini - curator - together with Annibale Gentile in the volume "Silone tra l'Abruzzo e il Mondo".
To enrich the evening, a series of other events that animated the town to the delight of visitors: Tamara Macera and Pietro Angelone, in Piazza dell’Orologio, were engaged in a series of readings with musical accompaniment; the CAI Valle del Giovenco, at 6:45 pm led the guests on a Silonian excursion; we have not forgotten the children who were involved at 9:00 pm in the review "Read me a story" which, through a series of activities, encouraged an approach to literature and theater. Then again the museum visits and the drafting of a collective story through “the suitcase of ideas”. On Saturday 22 August the program was even richer and more interesting from a cultural and artistic point of view; at 10:00 a "live painting" inspired by the splendid and painful stories woven into Silone's novels while at 16:30 another live, this time with a Silonian musical theme, enlivened the afternoon at the Cloister of the S. Francis; at 18:00 the highlight of the event: at the writer's tomb, some representatives of the Italian Red Cross, the Civil Protection and the P.T.A. they have read from Pescina - strictly without a microphone, as the writer's express will - some pages of Silone's novels. At 9.15 pm at the Silone Refuge, the Cultural Association Il Laboratorio presented a monologue, with musical accompaniment, by Lino Liulianella who recited "A dint of being wind".
President Capasso concludes: "The poignant ballad by Fabrizio De Andrè is moving: congratulations to the city of Pescina which, together with the heads of the Study Center, has made great efforts to honor the anniversary of the death of the illustrious fellow citizen; the lights do not go down and the curtain does not fall on his greatness as a writer who, like few others, was able to bet and win on the essential word and managed to make the lived experience and the local human universal
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"An unforgettable evening, on the notes of 'Piano Solo', was the concert by Stefano Bollani on the waters of Lake Campotosto for the 2020 edition of the Abruzzo dal Vivo Festival".
This is the comment of president Capasso at the end of the concert.
It is the great event that the Abruzzo Region wanted to create, once again, a real focus on the territories affected by the seismic events of 2016 and 2017 which brings together the 23 municipalities of the crater led by the Municipality of Crognaleto for a project important and certainly unique for the prestige of the artist and the magical setting of the lake.
On Saturday 22nd August at 6.00 pm, sitting on the lawn, facing the lake, the public let themselves be carried away by the notes of Stefano Bollani in his “Piano Solo”. The artist performed on a floating platform on the waters of Lake Campotosto. The concert accompanied the transformation of the sky and the landscape until sunset, a unique emotion of colors and sounds between nature and music.
Stefano Bollani's great concert for Abruzzo dal Vivo marked the restart of a very hard year for the communities still marked by the earthquake, which thanks to their tenacity have never given up on enhancing and promoting their territory, a real treasure made up of places and traditions.
The Region, also thanks to the commitment of the mayors who wanted to organize a major event despite the problems related to the spread of Coronavirus, considers this event a first step to contribute to the rebirth of an entire territory as well as to the enhancement of an environmental context and naturalistic nothing short of fantastic.
Saturday 22 the municipalities of the crater all gathered in a symbolic place of the earthquake in Abruzzo, to signify the union free from the shirts and the desire to start again from these wonderful territories, rich in history and traditions exposed for the occasion in a great exhibition of typical products. 23 stands were set up in the dedicated area, one for each municipality (Crognaleto, Teramo, Barete, Cagnano Amiterno, Campli, Campotosto, Capitignano, Castelli, Castel Castagna, Civitella del Tronto, Colledara, Cortino, Isola del Gran Sasso, Fano Adriano, Farindola, Montereale, Montorio al Vomano, Pietracamela, Pizzoli, Rocca Santa Maria, Torricella Sicura, Tossicia, Valle Castellana), where it was possible for the public to stop and buy food and wine products and local crafts. A unique opportunity to retrace many territories, each with its own peculiarities and virtues
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The president Michele Capasso, the members of the Board of Directors and the International Scientific Committee, the heads of the Autonomous Sections of the Fondazione Mediterraneo express deep condolences for the death of Arrigo Levi, one of the founding members of the institution born in Naples in 1990. In particular, the President Capasso recalls the affectionate fraternal friendship with the great journalist:
“Arrigo is facing a new journey, leaving a great void in all of us. He was above all an affectionate friend and a builder of intercultural and interreligious dialogue. Thirty years ago he enthusiastically joined the Fondazione Mediterraneo - continues Capasso - making contributions of great significance and importance. As a Councilor at the Quirinale, how can we fail to remember his brief messages, always affectionate and sincere, after sending him my notes on the occasion of the visits of the President of the Republic Ciampi to the Mediterranean countries, where our Foundation and I first of all operated. Arrigo's meetings with Predrag (Matvejevic ') are memorable: two different "agnostics". Arrigo defined himself as a "non-believer who has faith in Man", while Predrag in nothingness.
When we set up the Foundation in 1990 - immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall - Arrigo was aware (and convinced all of us on this topic) that "the balance based on mutual fear between the two blocks had disappeared": he often warned us about "a possible atomic war capable of destroying the planet ”. This is why he strongly believed in dialogue between believers and non-believers, essentially with humanists: he often repeated "I don't believe in God, but I know that the word of God has changed man!".
Many were his stories of his life. As when in 1999 he accepted the invitation to participate in the meeting in San Giovanni in Laterano for interreligious dialogue and with irony he said: "I think I am the first Jew after St. Peter to speak in this place"
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