Promote Europe with culture, the one imparted in the classrooms and especially the one found outside. European culture, its values, first of all inclusion and aggregation. The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart has chosen Brussels, the capital of the European Union, to celebrate its 101st birthday and become even more of a protagonist in the relaunch of the community project. He does it on a double date. The first, the meeting with former students now in Brussels, about 200, with some of them who put their skills, abilities and values at the service of twelve-star institutions every day. Today more than ever there is a need for commitment on issues relevant to European society, starting with the “contribution to the construction of European identity”, explains Franco Anelli, rector of the university. In La Stampa he claimed the traditionally and historically «international» vocation of the Cattolica, and recalled that «the European identity had an important contribution from the world of universities».
The message, for those who have a degree, is therefore not to exhaust what they have learned during courses, exams and lessons but to carry it forward. With one goal: to network. «When you promote the meeting between former students, then the relationships continue. A community is created, which then carries out initiatives». Anelli and his university intend to create this “community” of representatives in view of a presence that the Cattolica intends to have in the capital of the EU in an increasingly structured and continuous manner.
While waiting to follow up on this project, «Stories of Divided Humanity: from the Great Wall of China to Banksy», a lesson-show with a non-random title, will be staged. The physical structure has different values, recalls the rector. In the Middle Ages the walls that enclosed the cities were “an element of identity construction”, in the case of the Great Wall of China it was a defense instrument, in the recent history of our continent “the European Union has done a lot to demolish them internally” , and here contemporary Europe stands as a model starting from the wall.
When the Berlin Wall collapsed, too many other walls were erected around the world. One of the best known is that of Jerusalem, used for the poster of the lesson-show. Because the hardness of a wall can also be contrasted with art and with the messages that can be affixed or drawn on it. That’s why the show by Mario Colombo, professor of Contemporary History at the Cattolica, is enriched with live drawings by Michele Tranquillini.
A cultural initiative with a strong visual impact that offers food for thought, starting with current events. In today’s EU, for some, the wall is the solution to the migrant phenomenon. Whether it’s physical, metaphorical or conceptual walls, the idea confronts the aspirations and limits of men and women in Europe and beyond, with an invitation to overcome barriers and cultivate ambitions. As the European Union has been able to demonstrate.