This year, the Day of Remembrance falls just two days after the official launch of the Go!2025 experience. On Saturday 8 February, Gorizia will become the travelling companion of the Slovenian city of Nova Gorica, united as European Capital of Culture 2025.
A significant chronological proximity.
Nevertheless, it is essential to acknowledge that the future of these two cities cannot be divorced from their historical legacies, lest this event be reduced to a mere aggregation of initiatives. Over the course of the last century, the peoples residing in this region of Europe have directly experienced, on a profound personal level, the extent of harm that can be inflicted on other human beings through unquestioning adherence to nationalist ideologies. These ideologies are predicated on authoritarianism and the supremacy of one race over others, and they consolidate their position in public opinion by fostering a pervasive climate of distrust and fear towards “others”. These “others” are stigmatised as dangerous due to their linguistic and religious diversity, or because they were forcibly displaced from their homelands as a result of war, famine… However, those who had hoped that the suffering endured and the cries of pain raised by the men and women of the Isonzo area would serve to consolidate the walls of division, recrimination and hate, failed to recognise a fundamental difference in their history: the very fact of being the offspring of a land where encounter and welcome were traditionally the norm, and which harbours in its DNA the Christian values of peace and reconciliation that the Church of Aquileia instilled in the peoples of central Europe for almost 20 centuries. At a time when armed guards were still stationed at the White Line that, at the end of the Second World War, crossed Piazza Transalpina, marking the separation between Western and Eastern Europe, 14 years before the Berlin Wall, the material separation between the two blocs that divided Europe, a message that might have seemed utopian to most people was sent from the Isonzo area: men and women who had chosen to make their lives a prophetic witness decided that culture would be the key to opening the doors that others prided themselves on having closed forever. They did so in the belief that ignorance is the parent of fear and mistrust of others, while culture can indeed rebuild bridges and lift the veils of prejudice.
Therefore, looking to the past does not mean indulging in useless and unproductive nostalgia for its own sake, but understanding that these very values are the “winning” benchmark for the young people who are already the future of this country.
The two cities, while preserving their respective characteristics, can truly be the two lungs through which a single entity can breathe. Go!2025 could serve as a showcase and an opportunity for hundreds of thousands of visitors to get to know this unique treasure in Europe (and beyond!).
However, the year ahead of us is not just an opportunity, it also contains a reminder. The future of the Gorizia region, both Italian and Slovenian, lies solely in culture.
And so it is to be hoped that Gorizia and Nova Gorica will embrace the words that Pope Francis addressed to the professors of the Catholic University of Leuven last September: “Be protagonists in generating a culture of inclusion, compassion, and attentiveness towards the weakest as you seek to overcome the great challenges in our world today. What we need is a culture that expands boundaries, and avoids “sectarianism” or exalting oneself above others. A culture immersed as good “leaven” within our world, contributing to the common good of humanity. This responsibility, this “great hope” is entrusted to you!”.
Happy Culture Year!
