On the occasion of Italy’s National Day on June 2, Việt Nam News presents an article written by Italy’s Ambassador Cecilia Piccioni

Italy celebrates National Day

Seventy-one years ago, on June 2, 1946, the Italian people gave birth to the Italian Republic, laying down our democratic foundations on the pillars of freedom and democracy.

Today we celebrate the beginning of the Italian journey towards development, industrialisation and international integration. Through this transformative, although not always simple, journey, Italy has become a major player at the regional and international level.

Exactly 60 years ago, together with five other European countries, Italy undertook a major step towards the dream of European integration by signing, in Rome, the treaties establishing the European Economic Community. At the same time, as our industrialisation process began bearing fruits, Italy’s role within the multilateral arena grew stronger and it joined both the G7 and the G20.

Nowadays, Italy is not only a stakeholder in the multilateral arena, being the seventh largest financial contributor to the United Nation’s budget and the Western nation with the most men deployed in peacekeeping missions, but it also holds the G7 Presidency. This is a delicate task that we are carrying on with awareness of the many unprecedented challenges we all are confronted with. Nonetheless, we are determined to address key global issues at the top of our agenda: climate change, economic growth, sustainable development, migration, cultural diversity preservation and promotion, rule of law, human rights, security and stability. 

To push forward our agenda and contribute to the enhancement of the Post-2015 Development Agenda we aim to rely on co-operation with strategic partners, such as Việt Nam.

Against this backdrop, we are very pleased to appreciate how Italian/Vietnamese co-operation is flourishing and taking our relationship to the next level. We are working together across various fields to achieve our ambitious targets, first set forward by our Strategic Partnership Agreement and then reaffirmed by the many high-level visits that took place last year, among them the State visit to Italy of President Trần Đại Quang. As a result of these institutional exchanges, our economic partnerships are thriving and more Italian and Vietnamese companies are showing interest in our respective countries. Our two-way-exchange is steadily progressing and is already benefiting from the immense opportunities that the EU-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement will soon provide.

Within such a promising framework, we are increasingly focusing on a specific aspect of our partnership: cultural exchange, one of the most meaningful pillars of our bilateral relations, as underscored by our President Sergio Mattarekka during his first visit to Việt Nam in 2015.

Undeniably, through bridging gaps, culture proves the most powerful tool to strengthen relationships. Its preservation and dissemination are at the core of the Italian global approach, an approach based on mediation, dialogue and acceptance, as clearly shown by the priorities we have set taking over the G7 presidency.

It is therefore with great pride that, on our National Day, we’ll introduce to Việt Nam, for the first time in Asia, the exhibition Raffaello: opera omnia. The exhibition, designed by Italian Public TV and strongly supported by our foreign ministry, will feature an unprecedented combination of some of the most iconic Raffaello masterpieces and cutting-edge technology. 35 paintings displayed at the Việt Nam Museum of Ethnography in Hà Nội will take the visitors along a journey of harmony of colours, lines and characters belonging to different eras and worlds and through the unique beauty that made the Italian Renaissance renowned worldwide.

The decision to bring Raffaello: opera omnia to Việt Nam embodies our aim to engage with Vietnamese counterparts in cultural promotional activities, within the framework of a genuine partnership and with a focus on the value of sharing good practices and knowledge.

Highly skilled professionals have recreated 35 “digital paintings” of extremely high-definition and true-to-scale reproductions of masterpieces both exciting and moving to behold, making us visitors feel part of the story portrayed in each picture, in line with the Renaissance’s humanistic ideals placing the man at the centre of the universe.

The combination of Raffaello’s art with the skills of today’s Italian experts serves the ultimate goal of keeping alive, disseminating and making universal the precious treasures of the past.

A key role in making this initiative possible has been played by the sponsors, modern art patrons that sustained our project similarly to those who supported the Renaissance artists: Ariston, Generali, Ghella, Hung Yen, Piaggio and UniCredit. They keep on representing today and worldwide Italian gifted creativity and farsighted vision. — VNS