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Culture and the EU, a Bond Built over Time

, by Davide Ripamonti, translated by Richard Greenslade
A Fondazione Palazzo Te initiative, in collaboration with BLEST Bocconi, to demonstrate how culture has been, and will continue to be in the future, one of the EU's key features. Starting with Rubens

The Bocconi Lab for European Studies (BLEST) at Bocconi University will be the protagonist of a project called "A Europe of Culture," promoted by Fondazione Palazzo Te in Mantua with the collaboration of the Palazzo Ducale Museum Complex in Mantua and Galleria Borghese in Rome. It focuses on the concept of culture as one of the European Union's founding features. The project will also, and above all, represent a reflection on the common understanding in Europe in the cultural field, on the foundations of a Europe of culture and on the relationship between cultural policies and the consolidation of the EU.

"This is a complex project that will culminate in two precise moments, first of all a major exhibition entitled Rubens' Gaze on Palazzo Te, scheduled from 7 October," explains Stefano Baia Curioni, Professor at Bocconi's Department of Social and Political Sciences and Director of Fondazione Palazzo Te. "It is dedicated to the period that Rubens spent at Palazzo Te, when he came into contact with the painting of Giulio Romano. The Flemish artist's path shows how much the Renaissance influences he worked on in the Mantuan years continued, evolving, in the painting of his maturity, to remain as an intellectual and artistic legacy to his students. The works exhibited in the rooms of Palazzo Te aim to highlight the dialogue with the myths and interpretations of Giulio Romano, and no less the uninterrupted harmony with the Renaissance and mythological fables. Rubens was able to develop new visions, transforming tradition in a way similar to what Giulio Romano had done with the tradition of Roman architecture."

The second component of the project, which involves BLEST more directly, consists of a series of online conferences (see the complete calendar and registration form). Featuring political scientists, jurists and art historians, the series will start on 6 June and end on 4 July. "In particular, two of these events," explains Eleanor Spaventa, Professor of European Union Law at Bocconi's Department of Legal Studies and Director of BLEST, "will be held by Bocconi professors. On 13 June Catherine De Vries will speak, along with Francesca Cappelletti from Galleria Borghese in Rome, discussing 'About Time: The foundational narratives of the European Community.' Then on 27 June Damiano Canale will focus on the topic of 'In Difference We Trust. The intercultural foundations of European law.'"

Bocconi University students will be invited to participate in Fondazione Palazzo Te's vision of cultural initiatives and work as part of the Broaden Your Frame extracurricular activities, in collaboration with Antonella Carù.

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