From Prague to the world: 100 hundred years of cultural diplomacy

The Farnesina's Aldo Moro Hall hosted the event "100 years of cultural diplomacy" to present the initiatives organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague, the first in the world, and illustrate the agenda of the events promoted by the network of the Italian Cultural Institutes in 2023.

The introductory remarks were delivered by Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano, Director General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Farnesina, and the event was attended by Massimo Osanna, Director General of Museums of the Italian Ministry of Culture - MIC, Brunella Fusco, of the Campania Teatro Festival, Director Claudio Longhi and actor Toni Servillo for the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, and finally Emmanuela Spedaliere, Director General of the Teatro di San Carlo.

It is a cultural diplomacy that has deep roots and has evolved with the times, most recently with the establishment in January last of the Directorate General for Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Farnesina to optimize and better organize the activities promoting the Italian language, and Italy's way of life and culture in all its expressions, thanks to a network of 84 Italian Cultural Institutes operating in five continents, soon to be joined by six new Institutes opening in Almaty, Amman, Bangkok, Hanoi, Miami and Sarajevo.

All throughout 2023 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will be promoting an agenda featuring major cultural initiatives and events organized for the entire network of Italian Cultural Institutes abroad to mark the Centennial and in partnership with prestigious Italian cultural institutions including, inter alia, the Ministry of Culture; Fondazione Cinema per Roma; Accademia Chigiana; Piccolo Teatro di Milano; Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli; Romaeuropa Festival; Società dei Concerti di Milano; A.N.I.C.A; Fondazione Torinomusei; ItaliaFestival and many other.

To inaugurate the centennial celebrations, the Farnesina has developed a rich program of events in Prague:

• 16-17 November: "Perché non io? / Why Not Me?", a theatre play directed by Jana Svobodová and co-produced by Fondazione Campania dei Festival, Teatro Archa (Prague) and Napoli Est Teatro.- 1- 1-2 December: "Le voci di Dante", a theatre play produced by the Piccolo Teatro di Milano featuring Toni Servillo, who will also participate with one of his films at the opening of the MittelCinemaFest;
• 1- 8 December: concert by the San Carlo Theatre Orchestra conducted by Maurizio Agostini at the Rudolfinum Auditorium in Prague;
• Inauguration of the exhibition entitled the "Presepe del Re," a spectacular Neapolitan nativity scene featuring 18th- and 19th-century shepherds figurines collected in 1911 by ethnologist Lamberto Loria on the occasion of the Italian Ethnography Exhibition held in Rome to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy. The "Presepe del Re" exhibition, organized in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, will be hosted in the Chapel of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague.