Sport and inclusion

Thursday 26 September 2024 15:00

A collective action will involve disabled and non-disabled people of all ages on 26 September at 5 p.m. in the park of Villa Manin di Passariano, with the aim of dissolving the paradigm of mistrust towards the different. Proposed by Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto Onlus and LENSart, the initiative is part of the programme of encounters called ‘Art of Demopraxia’ curated by Giacomo Bassmaji and included in the calendar of the ‘Public Program’ planned at the same time as Michelangelo Pistoletto and Cittadellarte’s T3RZA TERRA project organised by the Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia with Erpac at Villa Manin.

Thursday 26 September will be the day dedicated to Sport and Inclusiveness. At the starting blocks at 3 p.m. ‘Physique du rôle’, the experience brought by Casa Italia to the Paralympic Games in Paris 2024. Art, culture, sport, and integration in the sign of Michelangelo Pistoletto will be discussed during the meeting with Francesco Saverio Teruzzi, coordinator of the Rebirth / Third Paradise Ambassadors, in the presence of Paralympic athletes from Friuli Venezia Giulia who have just returned from the Paris Games, such as Katia Aere (handbike), Marco Frank (rowing), and Davide Franceschetti (shooting). The debate will also involve Marco Mantovani, photographer who follows the Paralympic national teams during world competitions.

The 5 p.m. appointment with the ‘Third Paradise between sharing and inclusiveness’ is a Socially Engaged Art Performance, curated by Matilde Nuzzo and Francesca Malverti of LENSart in the context of Connectivism, with the scientific direction of Leonardo Zoccante, a child neuropsychiatrist.
The performance scheduled at Villa Manin has already been proposed on 29 September 2023 at the Castelporziano Presidential Estate within the framework of the ‘Quirinale Contemporaneo’ project of the Presidency of the Republic and then presented to the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella during the closing party of the planned social initiatives. The creation of the symbol of the Third Paradise made up of people with and without forms of disability is intended to emphasise the value that otherness and differences have in a participatory community. Drawing inspiration from the work of Maestro Michelangelo Pistoletto, the encounter between Art and Science, and specifically between Art and Neuropsychiatry, emerges in a substantial manner. Hence the close collaboration between Michelangelo Pistoletto and the child neuropsychiatrist Dr. Leonardo Zoccante: two worlds that need an increasingly frequent, open and direct dialogue so that this can be a stimulus for the growth of a strong society with solid foundations, tools and awareness.

‘...in the Third Paradigm the balance between the various aspects of social life is made possible. In it, a civilisation is configured in which differences are not pushed apart, but brought together to produce convergence, coexistence, understanding, sharing, inclusion and exchange’.

The inspiration for this event is rooted in the theory of the ‘Connectivoma’ – published by Leonardo Zoccante – which proposes a scientific-interpretative model that goes beyond the traditional approach to autism spectrum disorders, considering the person in his or her psycho-somatic totality and no longer just the neuro-psychic aspects. Likewise, the performance intends to go beyond the idea of acceptance to suggest that of coexistence, sharing and co-participation not only in the artistic realisation, but also in everyday life. ‘It is precisely in the sharing,’ comments Zoccante, ’that the realisation of inclusion and integration is established, hence the intent of the performance to shape a time and space of sharing, where the co-participation of an activity lays the foundations for models of coexistence. At the end of the experience, a snack will be offered to all participants and their companions.

During the day at Villa Manin it will also be possible to visit the exhibition Vola Alto con lo Sport (Fly High with Sport), made up of thirty pictures taken by photographer Marco Mantovani during the world competitions of the Paralympic national teams he follows.

The initiative, organised by Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto Onlus and LENSart, features choreography by Michelangelo Pistoletto and the artistic direction and curation of ‘L’arte della Demopraxia’ by Giacomo Bassamaji, the artistic direction and curation of Matilde Nuzzo and Francesca Malverti of LENSart in the context of Connettivismo, and in collaboration with Francesco Saverio Teruzzi, Artivatore and coordinator of the Rebirth/Terzo Paradiso Ambassadors, with the scientific direction of Leonardo Zoccante in the context of Connettivismo.

The event was realised in collaboration with the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia – ERPAC, Villa Manin and with the participation of associations and realities active in the territory.