In the heart of the historic center of Cosenza the Sila 2025 Award He promoted a dialogue of extraordinary intensity. Suspended between literature, history and civil commitment. The two protagonists were Paola Caridi, winner of the Sila Prize for the Economy and Company section with the book «Il Gelso di Jerusalemme. The other story told by the trees “(Feltrinelli), And Tomaso Montanariart historian, academic and member of the Sila jury. Together, the two intellectuals intertwined the voices of nature and memory, offering new perspectives on the history and culture of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, but also on the urgency of a civil commitment that is not limited to the analysis, but translates into concrete gestures, such as the recent mobilization “a Sudario for Gaza”, organized, among others, precisely by Caridi and Montanari.
At the end of the meeting, we stopped with Tomaso Montanari to reflect on the role of culture in times marked by conflicts and humanitarian crises. From a genocide that is reaping an impressive number of victims in Gaza.
The Sila Prize has always been a place of dialogue between literature and civil commitment. What added value can literature offer today in telling the complexity of the Mediterranean and the Middle East?
«It is a crucial resource. Because perhaps the words of geopolitics, as it is called today, cannot fully grasp the epochal and existential enormity of what is happening. Literature is a language that manages to pronounce the unspeakable. As well as art, in all its forms. So, in the face of things that we cannot say with rational words, there is. Literature in this sense is more powerful than any other form of expression ».
His civil commitment has often intertwined with reflection on artistic heritage as a common good. How can the protection of memory – artistic, historical or natural – can become a tool for resistance against violence and destruction?
«I would say in the most intimate way, that is, making us become human beings. Because the point is not to change others. First of all, we must change ourselves. We are not born human, one becomes laboriously human. It is a path that lasts all life. Few things are able to react what is in our depths such as dialogue with that concentrate of humanity of others who call works of art, cultural heritage. It is as if we had all those who preceded us around us. Then we really come to the Gandhian idea that if you want to change the world you have to change yourself. But to do this, the space in which we live should not only be known historically but must be loved, and this can truly transform us into humans ».
Recently, together with Paola Caridi, she promoted the initiative “A Sudary for Gaza”, inviting to exhibit white sheets to remember the 50 thousand Palestinian deaths. What was the deepest meaning of this gesture? And what response did he receive from civil society?
“We just didn’t want to commemorate. We also wanted them to speak to them and that we spoke. We thought of the living, as well as the dead. To the still alive. And we don’t know how long. Our government, like Western governments, can stop Israel. It is our ally. We sell him the weapons, we pass our knowledge. Those southwashes were an act of accusation towards our government. Then it is a time when we try together to cry the dead, but also to save the living. Not that we can save them, but we can peacefully force those who have the democratic responsibility of a government to fully assume the task that the Constitution assigns them ».
Faced with Gaza’s humanitarian tragedy, how much can symbolic mobilizations affect public debate and political choices? Is there risk that they remain isolated acts of testimony?
“I do not believe. It seems to me that, for example, genocide can now be said, and until recently it could not be. Calling things with their name, follow the opinion of the scientific community and impose this truth also to the media – governed by often unwitting interests – and to politicians who resist their convenience. Making you understand that today the consent in the country is on the side of Gaza, because perhaps the towns and citizens of this country are a little better than their political ruling class. Trying to make it clear has a meaning not only symbolic but I hope, operational, otherwise we will no longer be a democracy ».
Looking to the future, what are the responsibilities of intellectuals and cultural operators in the face of crises such as that of Gaza?
«I believe that silence is complicity and that silence, turn to the other side, try to save yourself, be avarice. Don Milani said that saving himself together is political. Save yourself with others. Then intellectuals are primarily people and they are citizens who have had the privilege – I consider it such – to be able to dedicate themselves to that part of the life that can be called contemplation. This privilege imposes a duty. Being in the Ivory Tower also implies knowing that it is a guard tower and if you see dangers on the horizon you have to speak. I think this is the point. Don’t keep silent. Don’t remain silent. Do not theorize the hallway. Do not think that politics is a dirty thing, but to do its duty to the bottom, because it is only this ».