May 4 – Shows, readings, conferences, concerts, and screenings are the main ingredients for the celebrations in honor of Dante’s 750th birthday. The project wants to commemorate the father of the Italian language, whose birthday has been recognized as an “event of national interest” and on which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is focusing. With 173 events planned around the world involving about 80 Italian cultural institutes, Dante’s birthday is a joint commitment with one goal: commemorate the great poet, symbol of the same culture the Italian Cultural Institute network is committed to protect and enhance outside national borders. In October, on the occasion of the 15th edition of the Italian Language Week in the world (Oct. 19-24), celebrations will be considerably enhanced. Finland will pay tribute to Dante with a triptych of conferences: “Dante and his time”, “Women of Dante” and “Reading Dante today.” The series of lectures will be held at the National Library of Helsinki, at the University of Turku and at the premises of the Dante Alighieri Society. In Madrid the goal is to rediscover the Divine Comedy through the images of the historical-artistic and natural sceneries of Italy, thanks to the video “Maratona Infernale,” which will be screened on Oct. 23. Moving overseas, the students of Italian Institute of Culture in Rio de Janeiro will stage a dramatized reading of some parts of the Divine Comedy. In Peru, the Italian Institute of Culture in Lima will screen the last segment of the multimedia work “In Viaggio con Dante”, the cinematic journey across the sea of Dante Alighieri poems promoted by the Dante Alighieri Society with the support of the Directorate General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Sip)
