DEMTRIO SPAGNA
On April 30 2016, on the occasion of the “Youth and Culture” conference, the Youth Committee for UNESCO Calabria appointed Dr. Demetrio Spagna, President and Founder of the Museum of Musical Instrument (Mu.Stru.Mu.) of Reggio Calabria.
The Mu.Stru.Mu. suffered a terrible mafia attack 2 years ago. The night of November 4, 2013, in fact, the museum was the victim of an arson, which partially destroyed the structure and part of the ancient instruments on display, including an organ from the 1800s and the historical document archive. It was not an “any” fire, because it hit the Soul of Reggio Calabria, or its places of culture and aggregation. The structure founded by Dr. Demetrio Spain for over a decade has encouraged the growth and development of musical culture in this city and Calabria.
Finally, after years of fighting illegality and the ‘Ndrangheta, on April 25, 2016, the museum has reopened its doors to the public, thanks to the great effort of Dr. Spain and the young volunteers who
fought for its reopening.
The appointment of UNESCO Youth Committee ambassador on the International Day of the UNESCO Jazz has a special significance for our reality, as a testimony to the fight against the mafias and for the
promotion of a museum dedicated to music, a bulwark of resilience and resistance to the ‘ndrangheta, through culture and social commitment.
A person with unique values, a pillar of the struggle for legality and a lover of culture, a lover of jazz music and an expert in music therapy, Demetrius Spain is a strong symbol of the Unesco reality.
“To receive delegation to represent and report instances, dreams, desires, needs, aspirations, positivity of a group of young people such as you of the UNESCO Giovani Committee is for me a commitment to the ability to synthesis that I hope, where I have , to preserve long for spirit of service and gratitude. ”
PAOLO FRESU
Thanks, I’m honored. The artist is a chosen one in some way but he also has a responsibility. Elected because it represents the metaphor of creativity, the metaphor of freedom in some way and today
creativity and freedom are two very important and very fragile things. But the artist also has a great responsibility, he must be a contemporary man, that is he must be the one who reads the reality of today, he metabolizes it and proposes it again through a language that is what he knows, the language of music, the language of painting , that of art. I do not know why three musicians were chosen as ambassadors today, surely there will be others who will represent the other languages of creativity in the future. But maybe it’s not random because the musician is the one who uses perhaps the most universal language, we always talk about it, we say that music is the universal language, but maybe it’s true because it’s the language that comes directly to the heart or the head, it depends on how one catches it, and arrives without barriers, it arrives here. I played in Brussels last night, but if I play in Africa or in another place, a strong message arrives, that everyone perceives as he wants and that he metabolizes in his own way once again. And so this flowing language, that moves, that everyone carries within himself, metabolize and then takes away from another part as a kind of unexpected gift, which can deliver to others, to their people is a demonstration of how much the music is a sort of internet ante
litteram, something that comes from a very old story that moves at the same speed. The sound moves with incredible speed but it is necessary that behind a sound there is a thought, a sort of photography.
That when I make a sound with the trumpet it is necessary that inside that sound there is a story to tell, a suffering, a joy, an emotion. Then I think that my task as Ambassador, like that of my colleagues should be to try to tell the beauty of the world through the sounds, the beauty of the world but also the ugliness of what we have. I was lucky to become a young musician in Sardinia, I was the son of a pastor, and I always tell everyone that music changed my life, it changed my life but not only because I am richer, but
because it has me allowed to know the world. Through music I went out, I could speak languages, I could meet people. And knowing the world offers the opportunity to get to know others, to know what
others have, what others can give. What we like about others and what we do not like, to understand through knowledge is easier to understand ourselves. The facts of Paris are emblematic, evidently what happened happened because there is not the knowledge of the other and therefore we do not trust our neighbor. It is thought that the other is simply different and when diversity should be our wealth, the differences become in some cases our suffering, our hatred. So, what can be my role as ambassador? It must be to tell the beautiful, to tell the emotion, to tell how much a note can feed me, how much a note can feed the others, how much a note can tell what sometimes the words are difficult and can not say, and that instead, through a direct, universal sound, like that of music, it can arrive. So I’m here for you, I thank you, I wish you a good time and since I play music coming from Africa, there is a beautiful African saying that says “you go fast alone, but when you are together you go far “. So this is my wish for all of you, and for the Sardinians in particular that here is another wish for unity that is “Forza Paris”.
MARIO TOZZI
GIULIA ANDO’
GIOVANNI CACCAMO
JOHN DE LEO
John De Leo is the new national ambassador of the Youth Committee of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO, who joins Vittorio Nocenzi Davide “BOOSTA” Dileo Paolo Fresu, Demetrio Spain, Giulia Andò.
In the enchanting setting of Villa d’Este, in Tivoli, UNESCO site during the Tivoli Chiama Festival, organized by the Municipality of Tivoli – Palazzo San Bernardino, Paolo Petrocelli President of UNESCO Giovani and Mario Valerio Nocenzi national coordinator, appointed Ambassador the musician John De Leo for his artistic research path tout court that allowed to explore the most innovative creative requests and for the active engagement on the territory demonstrated with the “Lugocontemporanea” festival that
since 2005 offers to the citizens important occasions of cultural fruition.
“As well as with immense gratitude, I receive this recognition in the awareness of what it means, in the responsibilities it implies; I hope to be up to it. If this recognition is given to me about the work I do, this merit must be shared with all those people who always support me, even in the most risky artistic choices and not immediately recognized by the market. Those artistic choices whose intent is always in respect of the art and the intelligence of the public”.
ANTONIO GIUSEPPE MARTINIELLO
The Youth Committee of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO – Regione Campania is proud to appoint as its Ambassador Antonio Giuseppe Martiniello, a young architect from Campania who has been able to combine art, technique and elegance, founding one of the most important architecture
studios in Naples on international panorama, Studio Keller Architettura, able to export the best of Made in Italy outside the national borders. Not only an architect but also an entrepreneur, in the role of co-founder of the magnificent Made in Cloister project, born with a precise mission linked to urban regeneration in
the heart of Naples.
The Made in Cloister project started in 2012 with the restoration of the sixteenth-century cloister of the Church of Santa Caterina in Formiello – a rare example of Renaissance in Naples and Bourbon industrial archeology – which was in a state of total abandonment. The history of the place and its position have defined the project of reconversion: to recover part of the cultural heritage of the City to devote it to the revival of craft traditions, renewing them with a contemporary spirit through the realization of projects with
international artists and designers.
An important nucleus for Neapolitan commercial activities in the past centuries that returns to being “factory of doing”, combining social and artistic contents in a new sustainable key for the territory.
The motivation for the appointment of Antonio Giuseppe Martiniello Ambassador is in this: that his creativity, the innovation of his ideas and his concrete way of safeguarding and promoting our historical and artistic heritage and interacting with the community are the starting point and inspiration for our regional committee in the years to come.
DAVIDE BOOSTA DI LEO
VITTORIO NOCENZI
Simona Ferrante – Vice Presidente
Born in 1989, she graduated in Economics and business organization with a specialization in Marketing, she is a cultural organizer. She currently works at the Consorzio Teatri di Bari where she deals with the organization and marketing of theatrical productions, national and regional theatrical projects. She likes listening to Fabi and various Italian songwriters. She actively engages in associations and volunteering.
Her favorite book is “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks.