Pistoia – Dialogues on Man, the festival of contemporary anthropology, presents its eighth edition exploring the theme “Culture makes us human. Movements, diversity and exchanges”. This topic has been chosen to mark Pistoia’s role as Italian Capital of Culture in 2017, and the Festival will reflect this achievement with a programme of international encounters for audiences eager to discover new tools to understand the world today.
This Festival offers a new way of performing cultural analyses, novel both for the anthropological approach (it was a forerunner in adopting this method), and for the production of cultural content. Indeed, a continued commitment to offer audiences conferences, shows and unusual encounters over the years has seen the Festival grow, complemented by several other initiatives: a collection of books published by UTET, a large archive of audio and video recordings, a school project that has involved approximately 15,000 students and a series of major photographic exhibitions.
Interpreting “culture” as a plural concept is not only the main theoretical acquisition of cultural anthropology, but also one of the great cognitive revolutions of the 20th century. In fact, the acceptance of an anthropological notion of culture has paved the way for the deconstruction of the notion of “race”, enabling us to consider the whole of humanity from a single perspective. Cultures are always work in progress, constantly evolving, and cultural exchanges are the rule, not the exception. The Festival believes that culture makes us better human beings.
Giulia Cogoli, Creator and Director Pistoia – Dialogues on Man