Buongiorno Bahrain

AN Italian cultural festival opens next week with an array of art exhibitions, operas, film screenings and concerts held at various venues throughout the kingdom.

Organised in conjunction with the Italian Bahraini Friendship Association the festival will showcase “tradition and modernity” in Italian arts and culture.

Italian Ambassador to Bahrain, Calogero Di Gesu said: “We want to raise people’s interest and curiosity about our country, culture and traditions.”

“Italy has not had a long traditional presence in this area. The embassy was established only five years ago so we hope that the festival will allow adults and children to experience a taste of our culture.”

In an effort to promote Italian culture and enhance political and social dialogue between Bahrain and Italy a range of events will take place in the first week of November.

Bahrain’s Art Centre will be the first stop on an extensive Gulf tour of silver and gold ‘body ornaments’ and ‘houseware’ presented by the Sartriana Arte Foundation.

For the past decade Satriana Arte Collections, dubbed ‘museums in a suitcase,’ have been displayed throughout the world.

The two collections are connected by the theme: “Italian Style: dressing the body and daily life,” perpetuating the link between artisans and artists.

A Milan-born artist who currently lives and works in Bahrain, Giuse Maggi, will also exhibit her unique interpretation of Arab landscapes fashioned from glass.

A Sardinian folk group will perform open-air dances and songs at Bab Al Bahrain and Al Fatah Corniche.

Internationally acclaimed opera singers – including soprano Tiziana Scaciga Della Silva, tenor Luca Bodini and baritone Gabriele Nani – will perform popular arias in a concert held at the National Museum’s Cultural Hall.

A range of seminal Italian films such as Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Robert Benigni’s La Vita E’Bella will also be screened throughout the week.

“Since my arrival here last April I realised that the Bahraini leadership and population have a very positive attitude towards Italy and its people,” said the ambassador.

“Through culture and intellectual and artistic expression people can understand one another more and our different visions of the world. This festival is one way of contributing to the dialogue which is essential for the stability of the world.”

Mr Di Gesu added that cultural dialogue plays a key role not only in ‘bilateral relations’ but as a tool to “defeat the incorrect images that we in Europe and the West have of the Arabic world and vice versa.”