Minister of Culture and Heritage Dario Franceschini announced it just two weeks ago: Procida, one of the pearls of Campania, will be Italy’s Capital of Culture for the year 2022. The island was chosen among a selection of 10 candidates that included Ancona, Bari, Cerveteri, L’Aquila, Pieve di Sorigo, Taranto, Trapani, Verbania and Volterra.
Procida had already made the headlines even before being selected, because it was the first island to seek candidature since the inception of the competition, in 2014. Considered by many a symbol of that very traditional, very mediterranean lifestyle made of hard work on the sea and simplicity, Procida has been defined the epitome of that “slow tourism” that, in the eye of many, should relaunch the sector after the pandemic.
Shortly after the announcement, Minister Franceschini underlined how Procida is, now, a real symbol of the country’s “ripartenza,” our new beginning after Covid-19: “Viva Procida, which will be with us in the year we’ll start anew. This is a complex moment for us all, we’re trying to support cultural activities and tourism as much as we can and the choice of Italy ’s Capital of Culture for 2022 is a clear signal for our future, for our recovery. In 2022, we’ll be back to normal, culture and tourism will be strong again, just as they were before the pandemic,” he declared to La Repubblica.
Mayor Raimondo Ambrosino explained why the choice of his own island is so important: “Procida is a metaphor for many places, many administrations and communities that rediscovered enthusiasm and pride for their own territory and that, through the Capital of Culture title, want to create an opportunity for themselves and their land to start afresh.” He continued, just after receiving communication of Procida’s victory, saying that himself and his community are “honored, and would like to compliment all other participants whose dossiers and cultural proposals we read and studied with attention. For us and for them, culture is the key to recovery.”
The beautiful Tyrrhenian island entered the competition with a dossier entitled La Cultura non Isola, “Culture does not Isolate,” a word game on the Italian word for “island,” isola, and the verb “to isolate,” isolare. According to official communications, Procida was chosen in name of a well structured and well endorsed development project, sustained by a strong network of public and private local support, says the official committee motivation. Moreover, it has an “extraordinary artistic and natural patrimony,” second to none in the region. Perhaps, however, what weighted the most on the jury’s final selection was how Procida, a small fishermen island, with a strong, traditional heritage, has managed to keep these essential aspects of its own identity while embracing modernity, thanks to a thorough diffusion of communication technology and sustainable development, a process that could become an example for other islands and coastal areas of the country. Strong, in the official motivation for the choice, was also the idea that the project presented by Procida carries “a poetical message, a vision of culture that, from this small island, is sent to the whole country as a wish for the future.”
Indeed, the message of La Cultura non Isola is one of strength and hope, focused on the ideas of dialogue, relationships and openness, all obtained and maintained through culture, a bridge between individuals, a way to connect. Culture, Procida’s dossier highlights, can bring together imagination and concreteness and can help create relations based on inclusion and respect for one another, for the territory, for its natural and artistic beauty. “Procida is open. Procida is an island where isolation does not exist, a cultural laboratory of social happiness,” you can read on the Procida 2022 website. Indeed, the very symbolism of “the island” is central in the candidature dossier: “How many islands and utopias emerge and sink one after another? The island is a place for exploration, experimentation and knowledge, it’s a model of contemporary cultures. The island is the ‘somewhere else’ par excellence, it hides treasures and is a place to escape to, to find happiness. The island is where doubles exist: openness/closeness; inclusion/exclusion; freedom/reclusion; bond/distance. Dualities of identity we will develop in the principles and program of our cultural offer.” Procida, just like its predecessors, won 1 million euro (1.2 million USD) to realize innovations, ideas and projects that will make it picture-ready for the big year ahead.
The Capitale Italiana della Culturainitiative was created in 2014 and its importance is well described by Minister Franceschini to La Repubblica: “It is a path to valorize all cities, not only the one winning, through a virtuous mechanism that creates attraction and interest, much as it happens with Oscars candidates.” At its inception, 7 years ago, the Italian Capital of Culture was meant to select the national representative for the European Capital of Culture. That year Matera won, with all other candidates — Cagliari, Lecce, Perugia, Ravenna and Siena— becoming Capitals of Italian Culture for 2015. In 2016, the title went to Mantova, in 2017 to Pistoia, in 2018 to Palermo. After a break in 2019, the title was then assigned to Parma for 2020: the city is, in fact, our capital of culture for 2021, too, so that the many plans and initiatives thwarted by the pandemic last year can, at least in part, be carried out in the next 12 months.
In fact, the pandemic dictated also the choice for the Italian Capital of Culture of 2023: the title was given to Bergamo and Brescia, cities deeply wounded by Covid-19, so that they can become, in the year we all hope the pandemic will be only a memory, the vivid symbol of Italy’s — and the world’s— renaissance.
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