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Festival of Free Thought, Gorini Prize for Creative Madness
Want to help us recover Vittorio Gorini's materials and make them available to everyone? Make a donation, sign up, or contact us to volunteer!
The fundraising goals: 1. Digitize Gorini's 101 videotapes and make them available online 2. Create a Museum of Eclecticism featuring Gorini's artifacts in Perugia
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The festival of free thought and the Gorini prize for creative madness
The distinctive philosophy of Vittorio Gorini, a freethinker from Perugia and the symbol of the Libero Pensatore Association, which promotes the Festival, becomes an opportunity for a comprehensive encounter between artistic disciplines, cultural movements, interests, and the most diverse human endeavors. As Angelo Fanelli, president of the Libero Pensatore Association, states, "The Festival of Free Thought is a gathering under the banner of an idea promoted by Gorini for decades: imagining a different world, in both large and small ways." A "creative madness," according to Fanelli, increasingly necessary in a city confined to the cage of rationality.
Gorinian tradition dictates that the event be "for the benefit of all those who have their ears unstopped," and every year the Creative Folly caravan arrives unexpectedly in the various squares, carrying inventors, artists, poets, musicians, and nonconformist creators. The historic sites of Perugia that were once animated by Gorini host the competitors for the "craziest prize in the world," announced by the Libero Pensatore Association with an appropriate, Gorinian slogan: "flying on the wings of crisis."
As Angelo Fanelli, president of the Association, states, "For us, the message remains the same, and it is Vittorio Gorini's, especially when it comes to so-called degradation: there's no need to rush to achieve who knows what epochal change, just start with the small things, by meeting again, like the briscola card game in the square a few weeks ago. The city's suffering exists, but it doesn't come from external causes, it doesn't come from the Other. It comes from recognizing that we've all lost something of value: a Perugia where people communicated and met. Flying on the wings of the crisis therefore means creating small initiatives that convey a bit of joy, light-heartedness, common sense, and even a bit of unpredictability and madness to break away from preconceived notions. Let's all start being "for" and not "against" something, to "unblock our ears," and perhaps we will truly be able to find creative and nonviolent solutions." In 1988, after almost two decades of activity as the "village madman," Vittorio buys a used video camera and begins recording himself in his kitchen, reciting one of the 101 messages every evening.
The book FOLLIA CREATRICE tells the story of the 7-year adventure of the Gorini festival and award
Want to help us recover Vittorio Gorini's materials and make them available to everyone? Make a donation, sign up, or contact us to volunteer!
The fundraising goals: 1. Digitize Gorini's 101 videotapes and make them available online 2. Create a Museum of Eclecticism featuring Gorini's artifacts in Perugia