On September 12, 2025 in Lampedusa, the candidacy of the “Gestures of Hospitality” project to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List will be officially presented.
The initiative is linked to the pioneering research workshop “Inscrire les gestes de l’hospitalité vive au Patrimoine culturel immatériel de l’humanité,” carried out since 2021 by the French collective Perou in theas part of the Avenir project, through which it aims to include gestures of hospitality in the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, emphasizing the fundamental role of hospitality in the political and cultural project of 21st century Europe.
Since 2021, between Italy and France, the PEROU collective has been investigating gestures of hospitality at sea and on the coasts of Europe. The result is an itinerant laboratory: some 50 schools of art, design, architecture and humanities have participated in the work, and some 60 cultural institutions have supported and welcomed it for public workshops.
The official debut of the bid will take place at sunset on September 12, when Giovanni Allevi will bring his show Armonie Invisibili to the former quarry in Cala Francese. A solo piano concert, constructed as a journey of sounds, reflections and poetry, designed to take the audience on an experience of introspection and rebirth. The event, with free participation and reservations required, is promoted by the Municipality of Lampedusa and Linosa, with the support of the Sicilian Region and the Archaeological and Landscape Park of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, and is part of the collateral initiatives of Agrigento Italian Capital of Culture 2025. Reservations will be open from Monday, September 1, at 2 p.m., exclusively online, until all available places are filled.
An iconographic archive will be created to accompany the candidacy, documenting practices and symbols of hospitality: ten images and a ten-minute short film will be presented in Lampedusa by the end of the year.
“A recognition of the human and cultural value of spontaneous reception,” says Sicilian Regional President Renato Schifani, “practiced for years by a community that has found itself to be a frontier and a refuge. The people of Lampedusa have never backed down, transforming the emergency into a model of concrete humanity with human dignity at its center.”
“We share and support the path of Lampedusa as a land of welcome and listening. This project,” added Maria Teresa Cucinotta, president of Agrigento2025, “rewards the look, gestures and goodness of spirit of Lampedusians who have never backed down, instead committing themselves in the first person to provide help in emergency situations. And they have always been doing so.”
For Lampedusa Mayor Filippo Mannino, “the island represents the most authentic face of a welcoming Europe: here, where the sea embraces everything and marks the lives of those who live there, no one ever turns away. In the face of danger, a hand is extended. With this project we want to make visible and lasting what is done every day with courage and heart, and often in silence.”
Photo by Vito Manzari.
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| Lampedusa as a land of welcome will be nominated for Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage status |
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