“In the aftermath of the Trieste Summit which we, as President of the Western Balkans Process, successfully hosted on 12 July, Italy continues to promote political, economic and cultural dialogue at the highest possible institutional level, with the aim of promoting the region’s European integration,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Angelino Alfano, on opening the exhibition “Nine Works from Nine Collections of the Ars Aevi Museum – Sarajevo” at 6 p.m. at the Vicolo Valdina Complex of the Chamber of Deputies. The initiative, which was proposed during a visit by the Italian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in Sarajevo last May, offers to the Italian public the opportunity to see a unique contemporary art collection that was developed in the middle of the 1992-1996 Bosnian conflict as a reaction to the barbarism of war and supported by the Italian Foreign Ministry ever since its establishment.
Minister Alfano continued: “The exhibition of the Ars Aevi Museum collection in Rome, set up at the initiative of the Chamber of Deputies, is a tangible sign of the intense cultural dialogue between Italy and the Western Balkans and paves the way for their progressive integration in a larger Europe to which we all belong.” The Roman exhibition, whose ribbon-cutting ceremony will also be attended by the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, and Maestro Michelangelo Pistoletto, the first to donate an artwork to the Ars Aevi Museum collection and author of “Luogo di raccoglimento multiconfessionale e laico” (“Lieu de recueillement”), will run until 28 July. However, it will not be the only cultural event dedicated to the Western Balkans during the month of July: from 22 to 30 July, the Peace Orchestra, which was established at the proposal of the Italian Embassy in Sarajevo by putting together 50 young musicians from all the communities of Bosnia-Herzegovina, will perform at the Musica Riva Festival of Riva del Garda.
