Segnali di Vita
Since its 10th edition, the festival has been organised and coordinated by “Segnali di Vita A.P.S.”, an association for social promotion founded by the promoters of the festival’s former editions.
Among the objectives of the association, it can be listed the organisation of conferences and workshops for small work groups, art exhibitions, concerts and performances, all dedicated to promoting the concepts of Death Education.
But the most distinctive aspect of the association coincides with the promotional activities aimed at increasing the cultural approach to the values of life and death, which the festival has pursued since its foundation in 2007. These activities, mainly situated in the city of Parma, provide a framework for different disciplines and different forms of artistic expression to communicate with each other.
The mix between different disciplines – ranging from psychology to cinema, art architecture, medicine, philosophy up to gastronomy – is also the background that allows to develop courses and workshops on the themes of Death Education dedicated to high school students.
At the same time, the numerous university professors, actors, musicians, architects, photographers, painters and poets participating in the Festival contribute to making “Il Rumore del Lutto” one of the most prominent and interesting realities dedicated to confronting and comprehending the concept of death.
OBJECTIVES
Increasing the cultural debate around the value of life, by elaborating and sharing observations on the theme of death;
Promoting the relationship between the institutions and the families, through the sharing of perspectives on defined local realities;
Identifying the most appropriate support tools to limit the sense of anguish deriving from the “censorship” surrounding the themes on the concept of death;
Creating spaces for the reflection and sharing of these observations.
THE PROJECT
Il Rumore del Lutto (The Sound of Grief) is a cultural project born in 2007 from an idea of Maria Angela Gelati and Marco Pipitone.
Falling within the concept of thanatology, the project aims at creating a new space, in which the dialogue and reflection on life and death can take place through the constant intercommunication between different disciplines.
The initiative stems from the need to find, within the city of the living, an alternative way to live the days dedicated to the remembrance of the dead – making the ritualistic approach more complete and fulfilling. The participants to the project give life to a deep and multifaceted dialogue through a wide range of forms of expression, aimed at enriching the audience and helping to comprehend the most controversial, elusive and difficult concept ever existed: the concept of death.
The novelty and originality of the festival, even before dealing with the complex themes of death and grief, resides in its methodology of interdisciplinary research focused on creating a plausible “model of Death Education”, thus bringing the dialogue on death outside the marginality it has been kept through time. The need to change the way we think and educate about death, in relation to the concept of life, is the primary objective of this project, which seeks to connect the ideas inherent to Death Education to various forms of cultural and artistic expression.
The organisation of art exhibitions, children’s plays, experiential and thematic workshops with the background of the city of Parma, becomes the ground where music, art, literature, philosophy, theatre performance, psychology, gastronomy, medicine and architecture, all merge together on a single path.
A NEW CULTURE
The passage from an understanding of death codified through religious rituals, to a progressive rationalisation of the “death-process” (Elias, 1982) has entailed the concealment and dissimulation, both on an emotional and expressive level, of the feelings experienced before the concept of death itself.
The sum of attitudes – such as not getting closer to the dying or not talking about death to children and teengers – that Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1976) defines as the ‘conspiracy of silence’, is the direct expression of the concept of death as elaborated by the medical field; in direct contrast to the blocking of relationships as a consequence of a tragic event, as theorised by human sciences.
Whereas the historical events of the 20th century have brought Western civilisations to ignore their own mortality and to conceal the inevitability of death as “something that happens only to others”; Death Education, on the other hand, studies the different forms of depicting death.
To these representations, then, is attributed the most appropriate significance in order to develop a consciousness of the concept of death itself. Once this process takes place, this significance and this new consciousness are then shared within the community of interest.
SUPPORT US
“Segnali di Vita A.P.S.” is an association for social promotion – founded in 2016 – whose activities work towards increasing the cultural awareness surrounding the concepts of life and death.
This is primarily achieved through the development of education and learning processes, made possible through the organisation of conferences and workshops, art exhibitions, concerts and performances dedicated to Death Education.
More in detail, “Segnali di Vita A.P.S.” organises and coordinates the events of the cultural festival “Il Rumore del Lutto”, whose 10th edition has been the official debut of the association.
Why supporting Segnali di Vita
Because the culture pertaining to a niche field is precious and irreplaceable, and needs to be supported and spread.
The support and active participation, even with a small donation, are greatly valued and appreciated by the association.
How to support Segnali di Vita
You can support us by donating the intended amount via bank transfer to the bank account made out to: Segnali di Vita associazione di promozione sociale c / o
BANCO POPOLARE Società cooperativa Dip. 2512 Parma Ag. 6
Account number: 006274
IBAN CODE: IT29 D 05034 12706 000000006274
Indicating as payment description: DONAZIONE A SOSTEGNO DELL’ASSOCIAZIONE SEGNALI DI VITA
Upon confirmation of the donor’s data, the receipt will be sent by: associazionesegnalidivita@gmail.com