Together with the Adriano Olivetti Foundation, the event “Il cammino della Comunità. Impresa, cultura e territorio: la lezione di Adriano Olivetti” [The Path of Community. Enterprise, culture and territory: Adriano Olivetti’s lesson] was held at Palazzo Borromeo.
This was the second appointment with the Foundation, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of its establishment this year. After the introductory speeches by the Italian Ambassador to the Holy See, Francesco Di Nitto, and the President of the Adriano Olivetti Foundation, Cinthia Bianconi, speakers included: Beniamino de’ Liguori Carino, Secretary General of the Foundation; Lawyer Costanza Casali, Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Ivrea; and Professor Giuseppe Lupo, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan. Conclusions were delivered by His Excellency Reverend Mons. Luigi Renna, Archbishop of Catania, President of the CEI Episcopal Commission for Social Issues and Work, Justice and Peace. The debate was moderated by Alessandra Ferraro, editor-in-chief at TGR RAI Valle d’Aosta.
In their speeches, President Bianconi and the Secretary General of the De’ Liguori Carino Foundation recalled how the recognition of Ivrea by UNESCO as Industrial City of the 20th century and the national recognition of Ivrea as Italian Book Capital 2022 have helped to revive the memory of a history, that of Olivetti, not only of economic and social importance, but also cultural and spiritual. Prof. Lupo, on the other hand, outlined the concept of industrial modernity according to Olivetti: he wondered how the company could “act as a driver of development in an anthropological context.” The Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Ivrea, Lawyer Casali, discussed Ivrea’s candidacy as the Italian Book Capital 2022, emphasizing the participatory nature of the dossier (whose symbolic object and leitmotif is precisely the Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter), while, in the end, His Excellency Reverend Mons. Renna referred to Pope Francis’s speech at the Confindustria public assembly on 12 September 2022, when he pointed out to entrepreneurs the virtue of sharing, which is embodied in philanthropy, tax contributions, job creation and the setting up of a business according to personal and community criteria, quoting Adriano Olivetti himself.
