It’s scheduled for Friday 17 and Saturday 18 May, in Bolognathe international conference “Heritage meets the Future“, organized with the patronage of the Alma Mater, to reflect on the care of the urban heritage, promoting a comparison at European level with some of the main capitals awarded UNESCO recognition. It will also be theopportunity to launch the second edition of the Bologna Portici Festivalwhich will be held from 4 to 9 June, the great urban festival promoted by the Municipality of Bologna to celebrate the UNESCO recognition.
“Perception, use and care of the historical urban heritage: Bologna and its porticoes” is the title of the scheduled day Friday 17 May, at Cinema Modernissimo (Piazza Re Enzo), which will see alternating interventions by teachers, scholars and researchers, followed by a round table discussion between Ambassador Liborio Stellino, Permanent Representative for Italy at UNESCO, in dialogue with the Youth for UNESCO and the doctoral students of the Architecture Course of the University of Bologna who will propose their innovative solutions for the protection and enhancement of the urban heritage.
In the afternoona selection of period films from Home Movies – National Archive of Family Films of Bologna commented by Elena Pirazzoli will be screened, while at the end of the day the screening of the short film “Guide to walking in the shade”, a 1954 documentary by Renzo Renzi, a poetic tale of the Bolognese porticoes with the narrating voice of Sergio Zavoli.
Saturday 18 Maythe Salaborsa Library will host “Global challenges, shared solutions” which will bring together the UNESCO site managers of some of the most important European cities awarded the recognition of World Heritage Sites, for an all-round discussion on the challenges of protection in different contexts: Bordeaux, Nice, Amsterdam, Krakow and Odessa, which from 2022 experiences, together with the drama of conflict and human losses, also the urgency of preserving its urban heritage from destruction.
The debate will continue with the point of view of the institutions, in the panel discussion which will bring together, in an all-female parterre, the UNESCO Deputy Director Jyoti Hosagrahar, Marianne Knutsen, Member of the Board of the International Council for Monuments and Sites, Maria Chiara Esposito, Head of Cultural Policies of the European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture and Adele Cesi, contact person for the National Focal Point of the World Heritage Convention at the Ministry of Culture.
The conclusions will be entrusted to Helle Søholt of Studio Gehl in Copenhagen, today recognized as one of the most important architectural-urban design and research studios in the world: her speech will focus onimportance of a “person-centric” approach to the valorisation and care of urban heritagewhich, starting from the analysis of data on movements, behaviors and needs of people in the city space, is able to implement the quality – environmental, social, relational – of public spaces.
The two days will end with the unveiling ceremony of the first UNESCO plaque, symbol of the recognition of the Portici of Bologna as a World Heritage Site, which will be placed in Piazza Maggiore on the stretch of porticoes of Palazzo d’Accursio, the ideal completion of the journey that has seen the awarding of the prestigious recognition in 2021.
Appointment at 12.30 on Saturday, in the presence of Jyoti Hosagrahar, Deputy Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre: the ceremony will be opened by the performance of the children’s and girls’ choir of the Bernstein School of Music Theater in Bologna, which will perform the Hymn of the Portici, and closed by the monologue by Marinella Manicardi, The porticoes with eyes closed, original text composed by the writer and actress for the occasion.
