A GREEK HEART

What happens when modernity decides to do without the ancient? And what do we lose when the classics, which for centuries have shaped our idea of man, destiny, and beauty, are considered outdated?

These questions are dedicated to the meeting with Marina Valensise, a fascinating journey into the modern landscape of the ancient, discovering the extraordinary vitality of classical culture in the 20th century.

Through the stories and works of artists, writers, poets, playwrights, and musicians – from Hofmannsthal to Cocteau, from Picasso to Stravinsky, from Camus to Heiner Müller, up to Sarah Kane – Valensise shows how myth, tragedy, and Greek epic have returned to speak powerfully in the most turbulent moments of European history. Wars, totalitarianism, crises of civilization, desire, and nihilism: in the face of the fractures of modernity, the return to the classics is not an escape, but a form of knowledge and resistance.

A meeting to rediscover the ancient as something surprisingly contemporary: a living root, still capable today of questioning the present and offering us new words to understand who we are.

Marina Valensise, managing director of the National Institute of Ancient Drama, has directed the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris and collaborates with Il Foglio and Il Messaggero. She is the author of numerous books, including On the Brink. Cities, Artists, and Writers of Europe on the Eve of World War II.

Entrance by reservation.

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