Previous editions
2024

“But my predominant feeling is gratitude. I loved and I was loved; I was given much, and I gave something in return […] but above all else, I was a sentient being, a thinking animal on this beautiful planet: and this has been a great privilege and a huge adventure.” In 2014, after receiving a dire diagnosis, Oliver Sacks wrote a brief essay titled My Own Life, later included in the enlightening collection Gratitude, to bid farewell to life peacefully, praising and thanking it: grateful for the beauty of the world and for having been a part of it.
The reflections of the great British neurologist inspired me to choose gratitude as the theme for the 21st edition of the Festival della Mente. Nowadays this concept is often overlooked: we live in a society marked by resentment, restlessness, and confusion. To look towards the future with hope, it is essential to “embrace life” with charis, a Greek word that means “joy” and “gratitude,” as Luigina Mortari will discuss in the opening lecture.
Therefore, I would like to extend my thanks to the promoters – Fondazione Carispezia with president Andrea Corradino and the Municipality of Sarzana with mayor Cristina Ponzanelli – for believing in the festival as a generator of ideas, content, and inspiration. Thanks also to the staff, collaborators, volunteers, and speakers for their passion and professionalism in contributing to the event's success. And thank you to the audience, a community united by the sharing of knowledge, a fundamental asset for developing individual critical thinking and promoting collective awareness.
Programme of the 21th edition
Festival Opening
Cristina Ponzanelli Mayor of the Municipality of Sarzana
Andrea Corradino President of Fondazione Carispezia
Giacomo Raul Giampedrone Councillor of Liguria Region
Benedetta Marietti Director of the Festival della Mente
Event# 2
Giuseppe Barbera, Nadia Terranova, Michele Tranquillini
The gratitude of places
View detailsEvent #8
Massimiliano Valerii, Luigi Zoja
Italy: splendour and decline, emotions and numbers
View detailsEvent #16
Francesca Cappelletti
A forced gratitude. The portraits of Beauties in 17th Century Europe
View detailsEvent #20
Elena Granata, Annalisa Metta
A free city: why cities should not be shopping centres
View detailsEvent #25
Piero Maranghi
Grateful and ungrateful: a semi-serious journey through music history
View detailsEvent #43
Loredana Cirillo, Minotauro – Istituto di Analisi dei Codici Affettivi, Filippo Rosa
Thank you! What we have never told our children and students
View details