2023

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“To know how to wonder and question is the first step of our mind toward discovery.” It was this thought by Louis Pasteur – the 19th Century French scientist considered the father of microbiology – that inspired the thread of the 20th edition of Festival della Mente: wonder. Festival della Mente is the first European multidisciplinary festival dedicated to creativity and ideas, and twenty years after its birth, it still underlines the importance of the scientific sphere alongside the humanities – a union of knowledge which is fundamental to understand today’s ever-changing and contradictory reality, thanks also to the enthusiasm and competence of the speakers.

Wonder, then. A word that can be declined in many different ways and can drive us to pursue wonders and beauty in nature, literature, science, art, history and philosophy. And, above all, it is meant to be a wish for all of us: let ourselves be moved by wonder, joy and intellectual curiosity; we should look at the future with hope, realising that innovation must go hand in hand with social justice, and technology with protection of Earth and fight against inequality.

Lastly, wonderful is the community around the festival, which becomes a widespread and participatory fete year after year: a network of people bound by the collective ritual of sharing culture – a common good that makes critical thinking develop and individuals grow.

I would like to thank the promoters – Fondazione Carispezia with president Andrea Corradino, and the Municipality of Sarzana with mayor Cristina Ponzanelli – the staff, all the collaborators, volunteers and speakers for their professional competence and passion with which, once again this year, they greatly contributed to the realisation of the 20th edition of Festival della Mente.

Benedetta Marietti
Director of Festival della Mente