Valdo Spini, the Florentine southerner: “The South is decisive for the future”

Is digitization, therefore, a bit of the core business of the Neapolitan summit?
«From an organizational point of view, yes; then there is a message that I would like to send to politics and that is to restore its relationship with culture, a contact that has been completely lost in recent decades. Politics has made a clean sweep, fielding an eternal present pragmatism: we want to revive values ​​and principles that inspire practice. Norberto Bobbio with “Politics and culture” did it and managed to dictate the course of government action at various levels. Today culture is like a picture to be exhibited in the living room, not an element of criticism to strengthen democracy. The two areas must constantly dialogue especially in the challenges of the 1920s with their unexpected scenarios: crisis, war, reorientation of energy supply, immigration and the conflict that authoritarian governments create by attacking democratic regimes ».

Isn’t the choice of Naples by chance?
«We are starting again from the South after two years of pandemic. We have a rule for locations: we alternate North, South and Center. Now it’s up to the South, but this coincides with the awareness that the South is central to the economic and general development of the country: if the negative differential for the South is not resolved, there is no national salvation. The PNRR has established that 40 percent of the resources will go from Rome downwards, it will be necessary to verify that this happens and that it also occurs in culture. In Naples there are prestigious institutions such as the “Croce” and the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies – I renew all my esteem for the Marotta family, write it down – but alongside the large foundations, we also wanted smaller organizations that fight in difficult and troubled neighborhoods. It is not an elite conference ».

In fact, the program includes the Croce Library and the Annalisa Durante Library in Forcella. And between the sessions there is one on dissemination of culture and social cohesion through civic networks.
“It’s one of the segments that I like the most. She helped us to intercept and approach these realities Maria Iannotti, the… – I don’t know if she likes to be called director or director, I’ll ask her – of the National team. One of the issues we will discuss is how to make the encouraging data of the recovery of economic development recorded after the lockdown structural and lasting: for years Italy has been at the bottom of European growth, we must avoid that this relaunch is occasional. The reforms and the contribution of the South and the islands are decisive: coming to Naples is a political choice, not just enjoying a magnificent city ”.

You are therefore a Florentine southerner.
«I have a merit in this sense. I direct the quarterly “Quaderni del Circolo Rosselli” which I also chair: five years ago we published the special issue “Forty voices for Naples”: among the signatures was that of the then minister, now mayor, Gaetano Manfredi. I titled my introduction “The battle for Naples”. Six years later, coming here is an act of conviction and consistency ”.

Recent data on intellectual emigration are very high: the South is emptied of young graduates and ephemerally filled with tourists. Are cultural institutions doing enough to reverse course?
«Excellent topic for which we have a project that is about to be transferred to the minister of the University Anna Maria Bernini. It consists of post doctor contracts at cultural institutions – also to satisfy research demand within them – which have libraries, archives, personnel trained for training so as to keep the so-called “brain drain” in Italy. We have made a proposal so that in the Pnrr there is a project that occupies 280 doctoral students. Our attention to young people is also manifested in a small thing of these three days. All participants come at their own expense, except the under 35s: we take care of the trip for them. With this we testify how much we care about the training of new managers of our institutes who, since they were born, are almost always led by the same people ”.

Among the challenges of the 1920s for these ancient centers is the technological one.
“For two years we have carried out activities remotely, testing how democratic this level of participation is, which allows the use of content even to those who live in the most remote countryside or mountains”.

Like those who have remained in the increasingly depopulated “land of the bone”, the southern Apennines.
«I’m giving you a cameo about inland areas: my only film participation with which I managed not to ruin the beautiful film by a director from Irpinia who died too soon, Giambattista Assanti. In his “Young Pertini” I am a fighter of Justice and Freedom who speaks with the mother of the Rossellis, Amelia, played by Ivana Monti. You really are an actress ».

The three days

Valdo Spini, author of the volume «The highest hill» (Solferino), today opens in Naples the Conference of the Association of Italian Cultural Institutions (organized with the Mic), at the Banco di Napoli Foundation at the Courts. Speeches by Orazio Abbamonte, Banco di Napoli Foundation, Alfonso Andria, president of the European University Center for Cultural Heritage, Francesco Caia, president of the Banco di Napoli Foundation. Tomorrow and the day after days at the National Library from 9. Friday to 10 am at the Rotonda on the dissemination of culture and social cohesion with, among others, Mirella Barracco, Andrea Morniroli (Dedalus), Rosa Maiello, Andrea Mazucchi, Vittorio Emanuele Parsi moderated by Enzo d ‘Errico, editor of the Corriere del Mezzogiorno.