WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS GIVEN ITALY’S EMERGING POPULISM? THE CASE OF FONDAZIONE GIANGIACOMO FELTRINELLI Report submitted to Universidade Católica Portuguesa to obtain a Master’s Degree in Culture Studies: Management of the Arts and Culture by Isabella Sabatini Universidade Católica Portuguesa: Faculty of Human Sciences September 2019 1 WHAT IS THE ROLE OF CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS GIVEN ITALY’S EMERGING POPULISM? THE CASE OF FONDAZIONE GIANGIACOMO FELTRINELLI Report submitted to Universidade Católica Portuguesa to obtain a Master’s Degree in Culture Studies: Management of the Arts and Culture by Isabella Sabatini Universidade Católica Portuguesa: Faculty of Human Sciences Under the guidance of Professor Luísa Santos September 2019 2 Acknowledgments Notwithstanding the stress caused by the analysis of my country’s dystopian political situation, where some politicians believe there should be an Italian song every 3 on the radio, I am grateful for having attempted to reconstruct the “cultural puzzle” that has led us this far. I thank my supervisor Luisa Santos for her support throughout the year. I am also thankful to Fondazione’s Head of Research, Francesco Grandi, for his serendipitous teachings. 3 List of Figures Figure 1: Salvini supporter kissing his hand (2018), Enzo Lacopo, Lentelocale, __ 22 Figure 2: Where do Italian parties stand? (2018), BBC ______________________ 24 Figure 3: Salvini poses with pride next to a bulldozer (2018), NeXt _____________ 27 Figure 4: Arrivals of migrants in Italy per month (2018), UNHCR _____________ 29 Figure 5: Di Maio shortly after unveiling the first citizens' income card (2019), Adnkronos __________________________________________________________ 33 Figure 6: Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (2019) _______________________ 45 Figure 7: Funambulist above a city (2018), P. Anselmi ______________________ 63 Figure 8: Lehman Brothers and Amazon warehouse (2018), P. Anselmi _________ 63 Figure 9: Amazon's rising stock value and migrant's reconstruction capabilities (2018), P. Anselmi ___________________________________________________ 64 Figure 10: Salvini's twitter spectacle, the Italian "why" gesture and multicultural athletics team (2018), P. Anselmi ________________________________________ 64 Figure 11: Frontiers Repression poster and an immigrant's photographic registration, (2018), P. Anselmi ________________________________________ 64 Figure 12: Salvini-Putin Rubik's cube and a LGBTIQ girl (2018), P. Anselmi _____ 65 Figure 13: Impeach Trump (2018), P. Anselmi _____________________________ 65 Figure 14: Power, Democracy (2018), P. Anselmi __________________________ 65 Figure 15: Opening image of an article titled "Immigrants to Hell" (2018), Blog.il Giornale____________________________________________________________ 82 4 List of Acronyms - AICI: Associazione Istituti di Cultura Italiani - CGIL: Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro - DHI: Dignitatis Humanae Institute - EU: European Union - ICT: Information and Communications Technology - LGBTIQ: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer - M5S: Movimento Cinque Stelle - NGO: Non-Governmental Organisation - OECD: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development - PCI: Partito Comunista Italiano - PD: Partito Democratico - PdL: Partito della Libertà - PPI: Partito Popolare Italiano - TINA: There is no Alternative - UKIP: United Kingdom Independence Party - UN: United Nations 5 Abstract The current report refers to an internship experience in Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Milan, taken place between September 2018 and January 2019. The question “what is the role of cultural institutions given Italy’s emerging populism?” framed the research period. This paper’s aim is to address the numerous approaches employed by cultural institutions in the current political Italian landscape, shaped by populism. Populism is described as the people wills’ impersonation (Müller, 2016; Mudde & Kaltwasser, 2017; Urbinati et al., 2018; Moffit, 2016). Specifically, the “populist moment” is characterized by an ideology with an antagonistic nature: the “corrupt elite” against the “pure people” (Mouffe, 2018; Mudde & Kaltwasser, 2017). The once dominant neoliberal model has been fervently challenged since 2008’s financial crisis; global populist movements indistinctly question capitalism’s contradictions. Neoliberalism’s failure is located within the “crises of knowledge”, where all traditional knowledge producers are experiecing a loss of authority (Grossber, 2017). Italy’s Lega-Five Star populist coalition exemplifies this frame, given the anti-science and anti-immigration sentiments it propagates. Intellectuals’ are in privileged positions of opportunity, which yield responsibility (Chomsky, 1967). Cultural institutions’ promise is to provide an epistemological “culture of enquiry” to all citizens (Carr, 2003). The methodology adopted in this report, besides the hands-on experience of the internship, is primarily lecture and library-based, hence includes secondary sources. After the “state-of-the-art” overview, Fondazione Feltrinelli’s scope is considered together with its predominant dialogue capabilities, analysis and countering of populism, through educational and historical approaches. Finally, this report includes a comparative analysis between Feltrinelli and Fondazione Basso, Istituto Sturzo and Istituto Dignitatis Humanae’s functioning. With the exception of the latter, whose peculiarity is Bannon’s endorsement, this research concludes that Italy’s cultural institutions typically act counter-hegemonically to populism and strive for change through reflection. Key Words: Populism; Crises of Knowledge; Responsibility; Educational Role and Fondazione Feltrinelli. 6 Table of contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................ 3 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................... 4 List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................................... 5 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ 6 Table of contents .............................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 8 PART 1: Conceptual Framework ................................................................................ 11 Chapter 2: Populism, crises of knowledge and the role of cultural institutions ................................................................................................................................................ 11 2.1 – Populism: A Global Phenomenon ...................................................................................12 2.2 - Crises of Knowledge .............................................................................................................18 2.3 - Italy’s Emerging Populism and Crises of Knowledge ...............................................22 2.4 – The Role of Intellectuals ....................................................................................................34 2.5 – The Role of Cultural Institutions ....................................................................................37 PART 2: Critical analysis of case study - Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli ................................................................................................................................................ 44 Chapter 3: Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli ..................................................... 44 3.1 - Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli and its self-proclaimed role ......................45 3.2 – Fondazione Feltrinelli’s educational role (or political blindness)? ..................53 3.3 –Fondazione Feltrinelli’s increased political responsibility given the Government of Change .................................................................................................................61 3.4 – Democracy’s decline is the disease, populism a mere symptom ........................77 Chapter 4: Italy’s landscape of cultural institutions ............................................. 86 4.1: Fondazione Lelio e Lisli Basso’s human rights maxim .............................................86 4.2: Istituto Luigi Sturzo: compare as a means to contrast .............................................98 4.3: Istituto Dignitatis Humanae’s populist crusade ...................................................... 104 Chapter 5: Conclusion ................................................................................................... 109 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 112 7 Chapter 1: Introduction A personal concern for Italy’s political climate and a fruitful work experience motivated this internship report, which hopes to function as a testament to liberal intellectuals while investigating: what is the role of cultural institutions given Italy’s emerging populism? We have currently entered an “age of anger” (Mishra, 2017). Italians now celebrate Vaffa Day (F**k you Day), launched by the founder