On Thursday, 22 September 2022, the event “The journey of the Community. Business, culture and territory: the lesson of Adriano Olivetti” took place at Palazzo Borromeo in collaboration with the Adriano Olivetti Foundation.
It was the second meeting with this Foundation, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of its establishment. In September 2020, our Embassy hosted the conference “From factories of goods to factories of goodness. The relevance of the Olivetti model for a new economic paradigm” to discuss issues more closely related to Olivetti’s business idea. This last event, however, addressed a more specific aspect of Olivetti’s thought: the relationship between business and culture.
After the greetings of Ambassador 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; Prof. Giuseppe Lupo, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. Conclusions were delivered by His Excellency Reverend Mons. Luigi Renna, Archbishop of Catania, President of the CEI (Italian Bishops’ Conference) 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 Foundation, de ‘Liguori Carino, recalled how the UNESCO recognition of Ivrea as Industrial City of the 20th century, and the national recognition of the city as Capital of Book 2022, contributed to revive memories of Olivetti’s history. His elevation was social, economic, but also cultural and spiritual. His thought and action were guided by the complex ambition of an integral reform of the society, built on the harmonious combination of material progress, technical efficiency, technological innovation and the ethics of responsibility. Among Adriano Olivetti’s initiatives aimed at providing the industrial society with cultural and community references were the creation of libraries, the foundation of the Edizioni di Comunità publishing house in 1946 and the Movimento Comunità in 1947.
Introduced by the moderator Alessandra Ferraro, Prof. Lupo took the floor and outlined the concept of industrial modernity according to Olivetti: he wondered how his company could “act as a driving force for development in an anthropological context”. Prof. Lupo focused on the role of the intellectuals in organizational and communication strategies at the Olivetti factory, called to collaborate in the promotion of a “culture of the modern” that should have encouraged Olivetti’s human project.
The Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Ivrea, Lawyer Casali, elaborated on the theme of the candidacy of Ivrea as Italian Capital of the Book 2022, underlining the participatory nature of the dossier (whose symbolic object and leitmotif is precisely the Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter). She described the many initiatives launched by Ivrea and highlighted the very high percentage of inhabitants and libraries in the city: a network of 75 libraries for a basin of 240,000 people.
Finally, H.E. Msgr. Renna referred to Pope Francis’ speech at 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.
The event was broadcast live on Facebook on the page of the Embassy of Italy to the Holy See @ItalyToHolySee. Click here to watch the video.
