Sanluri – Press release released in full
The second evening of Sanluri Legge 2024 took place yesterday at the Medieval Castle
Everyone in class with Michele Mirabella
Anecdotes and culinary curiosities in Pietro Catzola’s story
With Daniele Congiu a family saga to tell the story of Sardinia
Today the exhibition hosts Carlo Cottarelli
It will be preceded by a literary reading and a dialogue with Milena Agus
A literary journey, from Sardinia to Rome, to the Quirinale, and then further into history, society and culture. Second day of Sanluri Law and many spectators in the garden of the Medieval Castle, present until late in the evening, to get to know important authors up close, to reflect together, because as an old proverb says, “you never stop learning”.
To open the second of the six ‘episodes’ of Sanluri Law 2024 Daniele Congiu, who in a dialogue with Giovanni Davide Piras presented his “Those were the years” (Arkadia). The book resumes the events of a family dynasty that has fallen into ruin, told, in continuous flashbacks, by a ten-year-old child. “The rhythm and the plot have a lot of South American feel to them – revealed the author –. In those novels the whole relationship is brought into play, with insights that seem to be ends in themselves, and instead then those characters come back into vogue, become protagonists, guaranteeing the circularity of the story”. As well as in the Sardinian author’s book, which is also the chronicle of the evolution of Cagliari and the story of a century: “The Bacaredda Administration moved the center of power, moving the Town Hall from Castello to the port; It thus opened new scenarios, with the strong development of trade but also of economic battles between families”. Regarding his life, he proudly says that he had “a very close relationship with my father. I went around the capital with him and he told me everything“, starting from the San Michele district, where “the only way to save oneself from poverty, violence and fear is irony and self-deprecation. There are many scenes that tell this in the book” and where “bullying is different from the bourgeois bullying that develops in high schools and also different from the more recent cyberbullying“, all issues dealt with within the novel, in which finally the contrasts of the family dynasty ruled by men “it is resolved by women, who know how to teach forgiveness and acceptance of others”.
Then on stage, wearing the kitchen uniform of the Presidency of the Republic, Pietro Catzolachef for 5 Heads of State, including the current one, and winner of the 2023 Bancarella della Cucina Selection Award, who spoke with Fabio Marcello about his “The Presidents’ cook. Life and recipes of a sailor at the Quirinale” (Solferino). “Since I was young I liked to write: for my wife, to whom I sent 20-page letters, and then when I landed in some city I sent up to 120 postcards to friends and relatives” he said. “I joined the Navy in 1985, it was an emotion on the occasion of the centenary of the Statue of Liberty to pass in front of Manhattan together with all the other navies in the world and greet Ronald Reagan”. But it was another President, Sardinian like him, who wanted him at the Quirinale: “He was a guest on the Amerigo Vespucci and immediately caught the Sardinian aromas that I used. He asked me to follow him”. In Rome he found very old kitchens which were then modernized at the request of the Scalfaro family: “They confirmed me and started a revolution: from prehistory to the future, with shared recipes, a vegetable garden, an orchard”. Then the Ciampi family arrived, “with whom we also exchanged culinary advice. They also asked me to buy a kitchen guitar for them, which they then gave me as a gift when they left”. While Napolitano “he loved Sardinia, especially our desserts. And he liked full-bodied dishes, so much so that a meat broth prepared at low temperature for 12 hours was not particularly appreciated”. His story does not exclude the mistakes made, because “Mistakes are the order of the day, they are used to always do better“, but the important thing remains “passion. I tell the kids not to leave room for regrets. I may be retired, but I like the job too much. Set yourself a goal, and something good will happen”.
The last appointment on the first Saturday is reserved for the big ones Michele Mirabellaprotagonist of the literary reading “Journey through myths and legends. From Marco Polo to Dante, to Christopher Columbus”, accompanied by Duo Saverio Mercadante, composed by Rocco Debernardis and Leo Binetti. The Apulian director and author talks about the beauty of the ‘journey’ to pay homage to Marco Polo, on the 700th anniversary of the death of the most famous explorer of all time, but then jumps among the great protagonists of Western classical literature: from the centuries before Christ, with Homer and Xenophon, to continue with Virgil and reach Dante. An extraordinary overview of habits and customs in mysterious and legendary places and an anthropological review of the most varied human types. “The man began to travel immediately, already with Cain”, explains the author, “and he always continued, also traveling through memory”. On the other hand, writing the Odyssey “it meant confiding one’s past to the future: 2800 years later we are still talking about Homer and the most extraordinary journey in literary history” ruled Mirabella. A journey which in Dante – precisely in the author of the ‘longest’ journey, between Hell, Purgatory and Paradise – also becomes a study, a profound analysis of others: “His most beautiful poem, for his Beatrice, is a journey into the knowledge of woman herself”. Without forgetting the one who made travel a reason for living: Christopher Columbus, “who had the same desire to understand how the world was made”.
Today the first three days ends with a reverse development compared to yesterday: the presentations will follow the literary reading, in the opening lineup and dedicated to children. “Mr. Sausage” is the laboratory show staged by Flavius Soriga, Richard Atzeni And Renzo Cousins which explains how a story is born, what it means to write a novel and how much is true or invented in the books we read. He will then take the stage at the Castle Milena Agusin a dialogue with Alessandra Ghiani regarding her “Passing windy night” (Mondadori). The author born in Genoa to Sardinian parents, winner of numerous awards, with works translated into more than twenty languages, will talk about the universal tension between the desire to dream and the need to inhabit reality, expressed in her texts with such a original and childish to inspire laughter and wonder at the same time. Sunday will end with an international guest like Carlo Cottarelliinterviewed by Paola Pintus about her essay “Inside the palace, what happens in the halls of power” (Feltrinelli). An unfiltered testimony of his journey in the Senate, closely examining the critical issues, inefficiencies and missed opportunities that characterized that long journey. The book, published just two months ago, enlightens the reader on the current state of political institutions. In describing the practices within Parliament, the author denounces their Byzantinism, highlighting in particular the increasingly marked distancing of citizens from political participation.
The event is promoted by Municipality of Sanluriwith the support of Foundation Of Sardinia and of Region Autonomous from the Sardinia – Department Pi Bb. Cc.; also for this eighth edition the organizational coordination is entrusted toAssociation of local authorities for cultural and entertainment activities.
Even on the last day of the first weekend of Sanluri Legge 2024 you can enjoy a literary aperitif, tasting local products and tasting the wines of the Su Entu winery. The entire event is scheduled at the Medieval Castle. A symbolic place of Sardinian history and culture, it embraces the culture of today, regional, national and international.
Press release by: communications office of the Association of Local Authorities for cultural and entertainment activities
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