Previous editions
2009
Festival della Mente 6th Edition
Sarzana, 3-5 September, 2010
The program of the 6th edition includes over 60 events between lectures, performances, meetings, readings, as well as workshops dedicated to children and teenagers.
After last year’s amazing success, the approfonditaMente series of events will be back with its numerus clausus lecture-workshops, greatly appreciated by our audience for offering a close and effective interaction with speakers. This year, approfonditaMente will deal with the following subjects: ethno-psychiatry; urban ethics and aesthetics; the ethology of plants; design and its functions (or non-functions); the power of music; the enigma of inspiration; the mind and walking.
Following is a list of participants in the Festival’s 6th edition: the geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza; the writer Luis Sepùlveda together with the Spanish scholar Bruno Arpaia; Semir Zeki, neuroscientist; Eugenio Borgna, psychiatrist; the Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld together with the critic Ranieri Polese; ; Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Corrado Passera; Piero Coppo, neuro-psychiatrist; philosophers Roberta De Monticelli and Carlo Sini; historians Alessandro Barbero and Adriano Prosperi; the popular Italian writer Stefano Benni with Umberto Petrin at the piano; Carlo Petrini, the founder of SlowFood; the mathematician Piergiorgio Odifreddi; Marco Romano, architect and urban planner; Miriam Mafai, journalist and essay writer; playwright and storyteller Luca Scarlini; Franco Raggi, architect and designer; Antonio Perazzi, garden designer; the author and critic Giuseppe Montesano with Anna Bonaiuto, one Italy’s leading stage actresses; Stefano Bartezzaghi, the semiologist who studies puzzles, with the composer Carlo Boccadoro and with Davide Tortorella, TV author; Luigi Zoja, psychoanalyst; Alberto Casadei, literary historian; chef Davide Oldani with writer and journalist Camilla Baresani; the prominent linguist Luca Serianni; Francesco Bonami, art critic; sociologist Alessandro Pizzorno; Giovanni Filocamo, mathematician; the judge Gherardo Colombo, now retired, with the author Anna Sarfatti; art critic Franck Maubert with the philosopher Stefano Zecchi; Antonio Sciortino, the editor of ‘Famiglia Cristiana’, with Marco Politi, commentator for ‘la Repubblica’; psychotherapist Andrea Bocconi with Claudio Visentin, the founder of the ‘Travel School’.
Of all the scheduled events, 23 are dedicated to children and teenagers. These include design workshops with Steven Guarnaccia; music workshops with Luca Scarlini; gardening workshops with Nadia Nicoletti; a talk on the principles of the Italian Constitution by Gherardo Colombo and Anna Sarfatti; a ‘neuro-treasure hunt’ designed by artist Marta Dell’Angelo with the neuroscientist Ludovica Lumer; a physics-juggling performance with Federico Benuzzi; science workshops with the ‘Leonardo da vinci National Science and Technology Museum’, Milan; a cartoon design workshop with the designers of Disney’s ‘Topolino’ (the Italian version of ‘Mickey Mouse’); and workshops for the very young with writer Cosetta Canotti and the cultural association ‘BuonaLuna’.
The book series I LIBRI DEL FESTIVAL DELLA MENTE, directed by Giulia Cogoli—a joint effort with Laterza Publishers that began last year—is expanding with the publication, in September, of the following titles:
- Conversazione con Francis Bacon, unpublished dialogues by the French author and art critic Franck Maubert with the great British painter born just a century ago
- C’è da perderci la testa. Scoprire il cervello giocando con l’arte, by Marta Dell’Angelo and Ludovica Lumer. The first neuroscience textbook especially designed for children aged 9-12 to familiarize young readers with the functioning of the human brain and help them understand where our thoughts and actions come from. An original, interactive concept.
Latest issues of I LIBRI DEL FESTIVAL DELLA MENTE
May 2009:
- L’elmo di don Chisciotte. Contro la mitologia della creatività, by Stefano Bartezzaghi
- Benedette guerre. Crociate e Jihad, by Alessandro Barbero
2008:
- Sono razzista, ma sto cercando di smettere, by Guido Barbujani and Pietro Cheli
- Come nascono le idee, by Edoardo Boncinelli
- Interpretazione e creatività, by Toni Servillo and Gianfranco Capitta
- Fragile e spavaldo. Ritratto dell’adolescente di oggi, by Gustavo Pietropolli Charmet.
