Brescia is the capital of Peace and San Marino Green is there
Away with nuclear weapons from Italy and the world. This was said by a delegation of 56 municipal administrations and 170 associations, including the San Marino Green Festival
The fourth edition of the Brescia Peace Festival was inaugurated last Friday at the splendid Vanvitelliano hall.
“Peace and democracy, dialogue and brotherhood, environmental protection and respect for minorities are all inseparable elements that are held together”, are the words with which Roberto Cammarata, president of the Brescia city council and soul of the festival, opens the dance.
In addition to Mayor Emilio Del Bono, Deputy Foreign Minister Marina Sereni, Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, who wanted to bring her testimony through a touching video message, were present.
Also present was Izumi Nakamitsu, UN Undersecretary General for Disarmament, who silenced the audience with his words: “Since the end of the Second World War, peace has never been endangered as it is now”.
In the front row many mayors with the tricolor band signatories of the manifesto “Italy think again” which asks the government to treaty the treaty for the abolition of nuclear weapons signed in 2017 and will enter into force in January this year.
To make this edition special in the media, the exhibition of the dissident Chinese artist Badiucao, for which there was strong diplomatic pressure from China so that the exhibition would not take place. Diplomatic incident that caused CNN itself and the New York Times to talk about it.
In this context, the San Marino Green Festival wanted to reaffirm the stringent link that exists between peace and environmental protection, bringing its own testimony and an exhibition generated by its Sustainable Art Archives, entitled SENZACQUA, with works by Claudio Ballestracci and Giorgio Bussignani, hosted at the Bunkervik, an anti-aircraft shelter from the Second World War and today a sui generis exhibition space.
“We think that this suggestive exhibition could be just the beginning of our collaboration with the San Marino Green Festival, bearer of ideas and values” underlines Roberto Cammarata present at the inauguration of the exhibition, Saturday at 5 pm at Bunkervik.
Satisfied Gabriele Geminiani, creator of the San Marino Green Festival, accompanied by the coordinator Alessandra Carlini. “The festival generates relationships, art generates relationships. For those who believed in this tool that has been refined in these over 3 and a half years of activity, it is time to reap the benefits – says Geminiani – In these 3 days we have had important meetings, some strictly relevant to those who will be themes of the next edition of the San Marino Green Festival. Furthermore, as a festival that firmly believes in the communicative abilities of art, I congratulate Brescia who, despite certain pressures, did not hesitate to guarantee freedom of expression to an artist who through art denounces the country of human rights in her own ” . On Saturday morning the San Marino delegation was received by Bianca Maiolini, deputy mayor of the municipality of Ome, who for the occasion organized a guided tour by the researcher Antonio De Matola, to the Botanical Garden of the conifers, to the Bosco delle Ome and to the Garden Japanese cherry trees.
Relations with the KAKI TREE PROJECT association of Brescia and its president Francesco Foletti have also been strengthened, with whom an educational project is underway with some primary schools in San Marino which will culminate, next spring, in the planting of a plant kaki who survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
Pictures
1. Group photo of the mayors and associations, with Geminiani on the top right
2. The mayor Del Bono, the president of the municipal council Cammarata, Geminiani and Carlini
3. At the Ome Botanical Garden, together with the researcher De Matola
4. Group photo with the deputy mayor of Ome and representatives of local associations
5. The Japanese Cherry Garden in Ome
6. Persimmon tree project
7. Bunkervik inauguration
Press release
San Marino Green Festival