Luca Farinotti - writer, essayist, lecturer, twice Bancarella finalist in the last three years - appointed rector of the Italian Culture Academy of italiani.it, tells us about the genesis of the project and its peculiarities.
Luca, how did your collaboration with the italiani.it Foundation start?
The meeting with Gerard Ferlaino it was dazzling. We met a little over a year ago. Over a coffee he began to explain the project and the italiani.it network. It made me move.
A complex, large project, not easy to understand at first glance ...
True, the understanding of the set of containers it, their system of correlation and the infinite potential of this project requires some time to be understood and perceived in its entirety. But what was immediately clear to me is the feeling that moves everything. A feeling that italiani.it summarizes in the claim "Italy in the heart" but which I think is much more. The force that moves the network and its foundation presupposes a love that goes beyond flags. It has in itself a universal signifier: I would speak of love for humanity tout court.
The Academy is, in fact, one of the many channels through which italiani.it expresses its mission. How did you face this responsibility?
First of all, it was important for me that this school of Italianness immediately continued to express the mission of the foundation and the message had to be very clear, it could not be an online academy like any other. The purpose of itAccademia is to safeguard, promote, coordinate, integrate and disseminate Italian culture in the world in its highest expressions in accordance with the fundamental principle of the Foundation, that is the mission of bringing together Italians in the world to their own cultural roots, with particular relevance of the communities generated by the processes of emigration. This first of all and without any compromise. Starting from this basis, we began to build the school, designing the contents, the courses to be proposed and selecting the teachers.
Tell us about this journey ...
At the beginning we asked ourselves, given the above-mentioned unshakable principle, what they were promise that the Academy could and should have done to our users. The first promise is culture, for everyone and everyone, at the highest levels, in its various forms. In particular, the language. And on this we have been really uncompromising. Starting from the choice of teachers we have selected using very strict criteria: our ideal teacher has a degree in Arts, possibly with full marks, a Master in Culture, Multiculture and Immigration and a Master in Spanish language and culture. He is an expert in sociology and must have experience as a professor of Italian in institutes abroad. Because, in order to be able to transmit a language with the quality that we intend, we need to know the culture of the peoples we are addressing, their way of being, their habits and, why not, have notions of sociology in order to more easily establish a empathic contact.
And did you manage to hire these profiles?
It was a laborious undertaking but now we have teachers who meet precisely those parameters. This is one of the reasons why I consider the Academy a special school, different from the others.
And the other reasons?
Continuing along the path, we wanted our promises to turn into a mission to complete at any cost: the scholarships we have provided represent the project that is closest to our heart. The Foundation began its business by granting becas in Latin America. Now, with the Academy, this project can become even bigger, an uninterrupted òla in the great stadium of the world. We will continue to finance scholarships with our own strength, as before, but now, with the spread of the Academy in the world, anyone who wants can finance one or more scholarships for their compatriots anywhere on the planet. Our doors are open to all: philanthropists, patrons, ordinary citizens, companies, organizations, institutions. Our dream is to grant thousands of scholarships: we want to name each scholarship associated with a student after his benefactor. We want to feel a wave of positive energy grow, made of solidarity and gratitude, which can involve as many people as possible.
Then there are the other promises. The Talent, to which we have associated an educational area dedicated to Italian crafts and high craftsmanship. We want to be the guardians of dying traditions and pass them on through their custodians, generating job opportunities. To the feeling of Sharing ,
Participation that moves us we wanted to associate a didactic area dedicated to storytelling, narration, the school of writing. It is through the story that people can find each other, unite and share their stories even if separated by great distances. The uniqueness of our writing area lies in the promise of publication, the possibility of making your story known to the world and getting to know other stories from all over the world. There kitchen, our passion, then the art, Landscape e the image; The Terra, Technology , Science represent the other areas in which we are committed to implementing our promise through the production of innovative, unique courses held by the most authoritative Italian representatives of each of these sectors. We are not in a hurry, we are producing these courses one at a time and only after having meditated deeply on them. itAccademia is not a fixed-term project; it was designed to last forever. It is necessary to approach it in this light.
Being here and now, at the beginning of this great adventure, is exciting for us at italiani.it ...
You have to know how to live these moments. Today it all slips away so easily. The people who participated in the creation of this project may never fully realize what they have done. I would like everyone to stop for a moment to enjoy this moment, fixing it in memory: the Ferlaino family who, in addition to Gerardo and Paola Stranges, whose constant smile is the image of the network, has in Emanuele and Daniele the pillars of the future . Then the very strong technicians like Luigi Zurzolo, a real engineer of italiani.it. My team in Italy who spent whole nights in brainstorming and discussions: Filippo Mazzieri and Andrea “Percy” Ampollini who were instrumental in their collaboration. We had the privilege of using the images of Fabio Furlotti, the photographer who was the recipient of all my admiration. Finally, the IT managers around the world, the coordinators and the coordinators, the bloggers, the journalists, the whole network. Let's stop for a moment to look, and then leave again. It will be a great adventure.
