AGRIGENTO (ITALPRESS) – “Agrigento, with the island of Lampedusa and the municipalities of the province, has taken as its inspiration, thematic reference and goal for this year the relationship between the individual, his neighbor and nature, placing welcome and mobility as its focus. The program of initiatives presented to a national and international audience is of great interest. Starting from the extraordinary cultural heritage of the territory, in fact, it enhances a varied cultural offer, in which tradition, intersections and cultural contaminations allow to define an innovative dimension that looks with confidence at the socio-economic development that, with effort but with determination, Sicily has already started.” This is one of the central passages of the greeting of the president of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani, at the opening ceremony of Agrigento Italian Capital of Culture 2025, which took place at the Pirandello Theater, in the presence of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, the president of the Ars, Gaetano Galvagno, the mayor of Agrigento, Francesco Miccichè, the extraordinary commissioner of the Free Consortium of Agrigento, Giovanni Bologna, and all the local authorities.”Of absolute importance,” added President Schifani, interrupted several times by applause, “is the active involvement of the younger generations, in a land that still loses too much energy to emigration, so that culture can be a cornerstone of personal growth and of the entire community. The title of Capital of Culture, which has now been consolidated after so many editions, will offer Agrigento and the whole of Sicily the opportunity to reinforce and make known its roots, showing them to Italians and foreigners who, we are sure numerous, will come to visit.””From Agrigento, as a faint wind of peace begins to blow in the Mediterranean, the Italian Capital of Culture will give the opportunity to make known that crossroads of civilizations that was and is,” he stressed, “thanks to the ability to compose differences, to put them into a system, to bring antitheses back to synthesis precisely through culture and its timeless beauty. “The government of the region,” the governor continued, “initiated a preparatory action for this particular year by promoting the Christmas concert broadcast from the Valley of the Temples on television. An event that was a significant national success. The significant financial support offered by the Region is justified by the conviction that this important cultural investment is an extraordinary opportunity for all of Sicily, just as Gibellina will be the first Italian Capital of Contemporary Art in 2026.” “In Agrigento, in front of this evocative “African sea, immense and jealous,” a new path begins today. And it will be intersected by opportunities that must be seized, by industrious dreams to be transformed into new cultural and entrepreneurial initiatives, supported by the commitment to concrete achievements. This ancient City,” Schifani continued, “like the whole of Sicily, is the cradle of culture, civilization, philosophy, literature, and law, albeit amidst the tremendous contradictions of economic difficulties and the weight of Mafia criminality, the two black angels from which we are gradually freeing ourselves with a people’s choice that has been nourished by the sacrifice of heroes who have offered their lives. Pirandello said he was born in Sicily and that here ‘man is born an island within an island and remains so until death.'” “Precisely by starting from the awareness of oneself, of one’s historical heritage, of the immense cultural inheritance received, of the precious ecosystem to be preserved and handed down to future generations,” concluded President Schifani, “one must open oneself to the other, to the community, to nature, to the often mysterious confrontation with diversity (cultural, religious, ethnic), to nature. A relational vision, of welcome, of dialogue that is the ancient legacy of a shared plural identity. We in Sicily have been doing this for centuries. And Agrigento can once again be a testimony and emblem from Sicilian and Italian culture.”- photo press office Sicilian Region -(ITALPRESS).
