“Behind every problem there is an opportunity.” This maxim of Galileo Galilei seems to me the right philosophy in approaching the preparation of a major event like an Olympic ceremony.<\/p>\n
Especially when you’re playing at home and, nemo propheta in patria, everyone is ready to judge.<\/p>\n
All the better! It’s good this way: the pressure and the thrill of adrenaline are necessary, vital and indispensable ingredients to make that spark of emotion germinate and transform it into a great flame of participation, pride and passion.<\/p>\n
The same flame that will be lit in Milan and Cortina, and that will remain symbolically lit for the entire duration of the Games.<\/p>\n
Because why indeed do we light a fire? It originates in ancient Greece as a sacred fire that does not destroy: it safeguards. It is lit, carried, protected. It never explodes, but persists. A fire that passes from hand to hand and does not go out. A fire that must be kept alive: if you let it go, it dies. Like democracy, like peace. This is why the Olympic fire does not celebrate victory, but the possibility of being together at the same time, under the same light, even if we come from opposing histories.<\/p>\n
Fire as a sign of energy and testimony of presence is a ritual that comes from afar. A sign of life, like the fires around which the ancients gathered to celebrate their community. That fire that from ancient Greece arrives to today, a fire that is not just scenery, but is a symbolic pact between past and present, between different nations, under the same ideals.<\/p>\n
Historically, the Olympics have always been a diplomatic arena and have always oscillated between formal neutrality and implicit or explicit political messages. The tension between universal sporting spirit and national political interests is a constant thread in the history of the Olympic movement.<\/p>\n
In Mexico in 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists during the anthem on the podium to denounce racial discrimination in the United States. A gesture not envisioned by the “apolitical” Olympic spirit, but one that has rightly remained in history.<\/p>\n
The Olympics are a celebration of humanity and its best ideals. The first ideal is participation: a society in which the individual feels they can participate means imagining a world in which everyone can have a place. It is an immense, powerful symbol. It is the ultimate meaning of politics: citizenship as relationship.<\/p>\n
The Olympics represent inclusion and hope. Peace and reconciliation. This is the spirit with which this evening’s opening ceremony at the San Siro Stadium in Milan was conceived, and I am happy to be able to give my artistic contribution within the great creative team led by the many years of experience of Marco Balich, for the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation.<\/p>\n
Working for the Olympic ceremony puts you in contact with a variety of skills and talents. For me personally it is a great gift. But the aspect that most struck me in these weeks of rehearsals and setup has been all the volunteers who make this event unique. Volunteers who remind you how human warmth is something that is not for sale, because it is priceless!<\/p>\n
What no one talks about is the behind-the-scenes of the ceremony. The preparation. The rehearsal halls built at Parco dei Capitani, next to the stadium. It has been our Olympic village for these two months of rehearsals, with the cold and rain that occasionally came to wake us up.<\/p>\n
Tonight I will be in the control room with the entire artistic team following every detail of the ceremony: together with me Lida Castelli, Simone Ferrari, Lulu Helbek sign as creative directors, in addition to Paolo Fantin for the sets, Massimo Cantini Parrini for the costumes, Andrea Farri for the music, Bruno Poet for the lights, and Annalisa Barbieri as executive producer.<\/p>\n
The title of our ceremony is “Harmony.” A Greek word that in its etymology means to unite, connect, put together in an appropriate way.<\/p>\n
In music the word harmony immediately brings to mind the chord (a term that applies both on the musical staff and in a city council or Parliament). Chords live on internal tension, they contain notes that “clash” with each other, they work like a muscle that compresses and releases. Harmonic tension is what makes music “live.” But at the beginning this word did not have a musical meaning: it precisely indicated the act of making different parts and different elements fit together. A balance achieved without eliminating differences: not uniformity, but order in diversity.<\/p>\n
Diversity is first and foremost that of the over ninety nations that will come to our country. The faces, stories, struggles, ambitions, dreams and sacrifices of all the athletes who await this moment that is worth a career.<\/p>\n
The Olympics were born as a symbolic truce. In a polarized world, seeing countries compete according to common rules and then shake hands reminds us that conflict is not the only possible form of relationship.<\/p>\n
The opening ceremony represents welcome. Athletes parade, national symbols wave in the air. The Olympics do not resolve conflicts, but create opportunities for contact, recognition and dialogue.<\/p>\n
Sandro Pertini, President of the Republic from 1978 to 1985, sincerely loved sport, but rejected its exasperated political or nationalistic use. He repeatedly recalled that the Olympics should serve to unite peoples, not to display power or superiority. If Pertini were alive, he would probably look at contemporary Olympics with attention but also critical spirit. On one hand he would appreciate the Olympic idea as a meeting between peoples and an occasion for symbolic peace; on the other he would warn of the evident risks: the media exasperation of the Games, the distance between Olympic values and social reality, the enormous economic interests that risk reducing the event to enormous merchandising.<\/p>\n
Pertini would have asked that the Olympics be at the service of citizens, not of a few economic powers. For this reason, the task that falls to our country is to realize an Olympic program that is credible also in public costs, environmental impact and its transparency: sport must unite society, not create inequalities.<\/p>\n
Milan-Cortina are real cities, true mountains. The future is not only technology and power, but territory, care, balance. For this reason, in conceiving and realizing the opening ceremony we have given value to the human aspect of the show. Don’t expect a hyper-technological event, but an evening where the contact of bodies dancing in a symbolic space, like an enveloping embrace, will make us feel the taste of our being Italian.<\/p>\n
We are moved by the pride of showing the value and beauty of our country, with the discipline and rigor that the preparation of a great world event requires.<\/p>\n
And with the irony, enthusiasm and smile that distinguish us. We are not Italian by chance. We are always in some way, even if we don’t know it, even if we don’t want to realize it, the children of that ingenuity that finds opportunity behind every problem. Long live the Olympics! Long live our Italian style!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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