Empathism

The Empathic Movement (Italian: La Scuola Empatica / Empatismo) is a literary, artistic, philosophical and cultural movement founded in the South of Italy in 2020 within the 'New Cultural Triangle of Ancient Cilento': Omignano - "The Aphorisms Village", Salento - "The Poetry Village",   Vallo della Lucania - "Seat of Contemporary Arts Centre". From this first Triangle the Cultural Pyramid of Cilento was born to represent the enlarged epicenter of the Movement with 25 villages involved which joined with a new cultural identity and signing a protocol agreement.

Description
The symbolic myth of the movement is called Unus: an unknown demigod (son of Zeus and of a mortal woman) representing the Total Artist killed, torn to pieces and thrown into the Alento (Campania) river by his brothers, determining the old separation of the Arts. As highlighted by Giacomo Maria Prati, with the figure of Unus we are assisting at a return to the myth. A new figurative Greek character invented by Lerro using the literary device of the dream. One of the proposal of the Movement is keeping searching for the symbolic figure of a Total Artist in the contemporary age: a single person or a combination of contributions by people engaged in different cultural fields. For this reason the Movement apply to the Art the principles of the indivisibility and interdisciplinarity and asks artists to join and even to work together when it can be useful. Furthermore they support the overcoming of the Western scientific-specialized model and, therefore, the logical-rational approach. Moreover they reject the principles of an "unambiguous vision" of the "truth" and on the other hand, they support the principles of the "point of view" and "fragmentation". The movement promote the development of emotional intelligence through the arts and of the arts and culture through emotions.

The founder, the Italian poet Menotti Lerro, asked several noted artists to sign the “Empathic Manifesto”, to join in their peculiar expression of the “Arts” in a less individualistic way. They then started to help create a new cultural pole in Southern Italy, giving life first to the “Contemporary Arts Centre” in the Cilento area, which has invented "The Poetry Village", "The Aphorisms Village" and The Cilento Poetry Prize, giving light to new territory in terms of culture. The decentralization of culture gives voice to the silent masses of Cilento especially the peasant ones in the mountains, with a peculiar emphasis on intense and genuine emotion and feelings to share with others through Arts, refusing individualism, social exclusion, excesses of competition among artists and also rejecting the large phenomenon of plagiarism mainly due to the mass media and internet in particular. The official slogan of the Movement used by Menotti Lerro is "Be Empathic!" (in Italian: "Sii Empatico!").

Since 2019 the Movement had its own seats (Centro Contemporaneo delle Arti, with the poet Franco Loi as Honorary President ) both in Cilento and in Milan to organize its events. In the same year the artist and academic Marco Baudinelli from Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara created the logotype of the Centro Contemporaneo delle Arti. Still in 2019 the official Manifesto written by Menotti Lerro and Antonello Pelliccia was launched before at the literary Caffè Giubbe Rosse in Florence, after at the Brera Academy of Milan and later at the Central Library, Edinburgh in Scotland. About the Manifesto it is important to say it was first conceived as an oral speech in occasion of the foundation of the Contemporary Centre of Arts; this discourse was defined as "New Manifesto" by the philosopher Remo Bodei. Lerro explained it also in his article published on the daily newspaper Affari Italiani. Regarding the Manifesto the musician Franco Mussida stressed the importance of this new vision, claiming that "it is very rare nowadays to meet people feeling art as a mission to tell about its essence". In addition, the literary critic Francesco D'Episcopo affirmed that the Manifesto is "like a central nucleus of a cultural planning".

In 2020 the first official volume of the Movement, La Scuola Empatica, with the first one hundred adherents, also defined Empathic Masters, was published in Italy and in Italian language by the publisher Ladolfi, established in Novara. In the volume are also published the main movement proposals "to combat the stagnation of hypertrophic contemporary individualism". The same were published months later on the Italian literary magazine "Riscontri". In the volume the poet Giampiero Neri explains how the movement developed and in addition asks to "all people having the same principles, to join to them". Moreover, the poet Vivian Lamarque invited all artists to "trace their own centimeter" affirming that they are "little voices / for a great choir". In addition, the Italian poet Elio Pecora interrogate the readers asking if "empathy" is really a gift only belonging to the human beings, explaining, immediately afterwards, that in his experience animals have always been very empathic with him much more than humans and in particular than poets. The Italian Television 7 Gold invited Menotti Lerro to explain the importance of the Movement in particular in that difficult Pandemic period.

In 2021, in occasion of the European Heritage Days, the Soprintendenza of Salerno e Avellino stressed how the Empathic School was the third School started in the Province of Salerno. The previous two were the Eleatic School and Schola Medica Salernitana. According to the Soprintendenza of Salerno and Avellino the union of these three schools determined the birth of a macro cultural triangle of the Salerno's Province. In relation to the latter topic, the literary critic Francesco D'Episcopo from Federico II University of Naples, wrote an article titled "Scuola Eleatica, Scuola Medica, Scuola Empatica: il triangolo culturale del territorio salernitano, da Parmenide a Lerro" (In English: "Eleatic School, Medical School, Empathic School: the cultural triangle of the Salerno area, from Parmenides to Lerro"). The 10th of August, Salento Cilento "The Poetry Village" put on the wall of its square the first Cultural Pyramid of Cilento. In the same year The Biblioteca Città di Arezzo invited Menotti Lerro to present the Movement.

In 2022 the Cilento Poetry Prize, flagship of the Movement, got financed by Ministero della Cultura. That year the Giambattista Vico Foundation announced to have joined to the movement. In the same period Piano Vetrale known as "The Village of Murales" announced to put on the wall of its main square the Cultural Pyramid of Cilento; in addition the village named Roccadaspide offered a new site to the Movement and fixed on the wall of the "Crescella" square the same Cultural Pyramid. In Paestum the Italian poet Franco Arminio presented the Empathic Movement. In the November 2022 the "Museo Eleousa" of San Mauro Cilento inaugurate its Cultural Pyramid. In 2023 the Italian musician Stefano Pantaleoni, from Parma Conservatory Arrigo Boito, composed the official anthem of the Empathic Movement. Furthermore the first volume about the Movement in English language was published in England with the title The Empathic Movement. A section of the volume is dedicated to the "Empathic Masters" who adhered to the Movement. Among them the Polish Nobel Prize for Literature 2018 Olga Tokarczuk; the Italian painters Omar Galliani from Brera Academy, Andrea Granchi from Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Renato Galbusera from Brera Academy and Maria Jannelli; the Venezuelan sculptors Victor Lucena, Cesare Nardi and Carlos Medina; the Italian poets Franco Loi, Giampiero Neri, Enrico Testa from Genoa University, Valerio Magrelli from Roma Tre University, Maurizio Cucchi, Milo de Angelis, Roberto Carifi, Elio Pecora, Giancarlo Pontiggia, Mario Santagostini, Gabriella Sica from Roma Tre University, Davide Rondoni (founder of the Centro di Poesia Contemporanea dell'Università di Bologna), Tiziano Rossi, Mario Fresa, Massimo Dagnino, Rossella Tempesta, Gian Mario Villalta (artistic director of Pordenonelegge.it), Corrado Calabrò, Vivian Lamarque, Alberto Bertoni from Università di Bologna, Menotti Lerro from Ciels University; the Italian Hungarian poet Tomaso Kemeny from Università degli Studi di Pavia; the Italian writers Diego de Silva, Maurizio De Giovanni, Dacia Maraini (also director of the Mondadori's magazine Nuovi Argomenti), Raffaele Nigro; the American poets Genny Lim and Maria Mazziotti Gillan from Binghamton University also professor Emeritus of English and creative writing; the Swiss painter Anna Bianchi; the Spanish artist Rosa María Román Garrido from "Institut Valencià de Conservació, Restauració i Investigació"; the Italian art critics Elena Pontiggia from Brera Academy, Giuseppe Siano, Ezio Guaitamacchi, Paolo Emilio Antognoli Viti, Carmelo Strano from Università degli Studi di Catania and Francesco Abbate from Università degli Studi di Messina; the Italian geneticist Edoardo Boncinelli from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and researcher for National Research Council (Italy); the Polish architect Joanna Kubicz from Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts; the Pakistani digital creator Mateen Ashraf from University of Limerick; the Italian documentary directors Giorgio Verdelli and Elvio Annese from Brera Academy; the Italian Architects Aldo Castellano from Polytechnic University of Milan, Vittorio Santoianni from Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze and Attilio Dursi from University of Naples Federico II and Nunzio Tonali; the Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish; the Romanian literary critic Lidia Vianu from University of Bucharest; the English writer Michael Lieber; the English literary critic and director of the Centre of Health Humanities Andrew Mangham from Reading University; the Romanian journalist Marius Chelaru; the Italian actor Mario Pirovano; the Polish musician Tomasz Krezymon from Chopin University of Music; the Hungarian musician István Szelei, the Italian musician Andrea Castelli bass player of the Rovescio della Medaglia rock band; the Italian conservatory musicians Giancarlo Turaccio and Domenico Giordano from "Conservatorio Giuseppe Martucci of Salerno"; the Italian journalists Paolo Guzzanti for La 7 and rete 4, Antonia Cartolano for Sky Italia, Erminia Pellecchia for Il Mattino, Ottavio Rossani for Corriere della Sera, Peppe Iannicelli for Napoli Canale21, Franco Vassia; Roberto Guidetti for 7 Gold, Aldo Bianchini for "Il Giornale di Salerno"; the Italian singers Franco Mussida (founder Premiata Forneria Marconi), Bernardo Lanzetti (former lead vocalist Premiata Forneria Marconi), Lino Vairetti (lead vocalist Osanna), Annibale Giannarelli, Michele Pecora, Benito Madonia and Santino Scarpa; the Korean interpreter Lee Kichul; the Italian philosopher Remo Bodei, Emeritus professor Pisa University and Umberto Curi from Padua University; the Italian literary critics Massimo Bacigalupo from University of Genoa and Vincenzo Guarracino; the Italian translator Emilio Coco; the Italian actor Alessandro Quasimodo (son of the Nobel Prize for literature Salvatore Quasimodo); the Italian former Head of Department of Scienze Politiche, Università degli Studi di Salerno Luigi Rossi; the Italian photograph Francesco Di Loreto; the Italian designers Vincenzo Missanelli from Brera Academy, Mauro Afro Borella from Albertina Academy and Gino Finizio from IULM University, Antonio Perotti; the Italian publishers Giuliano Ladolfi (director of the literary magazine "Atelier") and Sandro Gros-Pietro (director of the literary magazine "Vernice"); the responsible for the literary magazine "Riscontri" Ettore Barra; the Italian composter Carmine Padula, the Italian cartoonist Maurizio Zenga; the Italian neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti (who discovered mirror neurons) from University of Padua; the Italian Emeritus professor of chemistry Vincenzo Schettino from University of Florence; the Italian professor of Analysis of communication processes Gabriele Perretta from Brera Academy; the Indian researcher in Artificial Intelligence Prayag Tiwari from Halmstad University; the Uruguayan professor of hispanic literature Àlvaro Revello; the Italian professors of English Literature Maria Teresa Chialant and Elena Paruolo, Salerno University; the professor Giuseppe Gentile, hispanist at Università degli Studi di Salerno; the professor of the Politecnico di Milano, expert in Light Art, Gisella Gellini; Enzo Tinarelli mosaicist from Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara; Angelo Ghilardi set designer from Brera Academy; the Italian professor in "Progettazione e Gestione dei Sistemi Turistici" from Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli Vincenzo Pepe; the professor of greek history from Padua University Davide Susanetti; the Italian professor of cultural antropology Katia Ballacchino from Salerno University; the researcher Vincenzo Aversano from University of Salerno; the professor for local development from Università La Sapienza di Roma Renato Di Gregorio; the Italian teacher in grahic arts at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Gabriele Ivan Di Battista; the Italian Head Teacher of "Liceo Classico Parmenide" Francesco Massanova; the Italian lecture and former Vice Director of the Center Contemporary of Arts, Giusy Rinaldi; the Italian librarian at "Biblioteca Provinciale of Salerno" Wilma Leone; the Italian officer at Chigi Palace Luca Paragano; the italian officers at Soprintendenza of Salerno e Avellino Rosa Maria Vitola, Mariagrazia Barone, Silvia Pacifico and Antonia Autuori; the Italian archaeological sector manager for the Soprintendenza di Salerno e Avellino Tommasa Granese; the Italian Head Teacher of the Secundary School ITIS of Arezzo, Alessandro Artini; the Italian Head Teacher of Liceo Artistico "Sabatini-Menna" of Salerno Ester Andreola; the Italian Head Teacher of the Liceo Statale "Regina Margherita" Angela Nappi; the director of the "Acropolis Museum" of Agropoli, Elena Foccillo; Giancarlo Sammito teacher of English literature at Liceo Artistico di Brera, Milano; the Italian psycotherapist, opinionist for RAI and Mediaset and member United Nations Office at Geneva for rights of children Maria Rita Parsi; the Bulgarian artist Ilian Rachov; the Italian visual artists Antonello Pelliccia from Brera Academy, Edoardo Landi, Nello Teodori, Kuturi, Gianni Macalli from Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo; the Italian artisan Lucio Liguori; the Russian poet Julia Pikalova; the Italian female actor of Un posto al sole Patrizia Pozzi; the Italian poet Simone Fagioli; the Russian teacher Valentina Sentsova from Ciels University of Milan; the Italian president of the 'Circolo degli Artisti di Varese' Antonio Bandirali; the Italian director of the Museo di Etnopreistoria del C.A.I. di Napoli, a Castel dell'Ovo Vincenzo Di Gironimo; the Italian founders of the visual artistic group 'Kaos 48', the Italian founder of the festival "Velia-Teatro", Michele Murino; Fabrizio Scomparin (nephew of Lucio Amelio) and Stefano Nasti; the Italian president of 'La Casa della Poesia di Como' Laura Garavaglia; the president for the club for UNESCO of Velia Massimo Trotta; the Italian co-founder of the Camaiore Poetry Prize Rosanna Lupi; the founders of the "Rete delle Scuole dell'Empatia" Ulisse Mariani and Rosanna Schiralli; the Italian director of the National Dance Academy (Italy) Annamaria Galeotti, the Soprintendenza's director ai Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici di Salerno e Avellino Raffaella Bonaudo, the Senator of the Italian Republic Francesco Castiello, the President of the Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni Giuseppe Coccorullo; and many others coming from different filds of the Arts and from different countries. Between 2023 and 2024 the Movement was mentioned several times on the major television channels as Raiuno, Raidue and Raitre. In this same period the Soprintendenza of Salerno and Avellino organized a meeting in the high school of Salerno "Regina Margherita" to present the new movement and its importance in the world of school to have a more empathic approach. Moreover the Movement is presented in Rome in a conference organized by the same Soprintendenza with a presentation of the Director of the Istituto Centrale per il Patrimonio Immateriale, Leandro Ventura. In addition, in 2023, the Museo Ugo Guidi located in Forte dei marmi adhered to the movement. Moreover the Paleontological museum of Magliano Vetere announced to have fixed the Cultural Pyramid of Cilento on its main wall. From January till May 2023, many weekly events were organised in the cultural venue of Roccadaspide with specific presentations of empathic authors and artists. The title of the cultural program was "La Bottega dell'Anima" (in English: The Workshop of the Soul). On the 3th of October the author Gaetano Ricco dedicated one of his writings in praise of the Empathic Movement and his founder Menotti Lerro.

In 2024 the Italian painter Omar Galliani, from Brera Academy, drew the figure of Unus, the symbolic Total Artist of the Empathic Movement. In addition the Italian singers Michele Pecora and Santino Scarpa dedicate their own songs to the Empathic Movement. On the 16th of January the Museo Archeologico di Salerno invited Menotti Lerro to present the Movement. In occasion of the World Poetry Day the Soprintendenza of Salerno and Avellino and the President of the Salerno Province Franco Alfieri organized a visit to Salento Cilento "The Poetry Village" to have a poetry reading based on the unpublished poems dedicated to Cilento and affixed on the wall of the village, written by all the poets winning the Cilento Poetry Prize, and for a conference about the Empathic Movement. The University of Salerno invited Menotti Lerro to present the Movement the day 17th of April. On the 9th of May Menotti Lerro and Antonello Pelliccia present the "New Manifesto on the Arts" at the Turin International Book Fair. On June Menotti Lerro and Antonello Pelliccia present the Movement at the National Biblioteca di Brera with the title "Rivoluzione e innovazione attraverso il nuovo movimento artistico-letterario della contemporaneità: l'Empatismo!". On the 15th of June the Italian poet Maurizio Cucchi wrote an article, titled "La modernità del Movimento Empatico" (in English: "The modernity of the Empathic Movement"), for the daily newspaper Avvenire expressing the hope that this new movement may unify artists and people in the contemporary age. On the 17th of June professor Pina Basile from University of Salerno and Italian president of the Dante Alighieri Society of Salerno announced to have joined to the Empathic Movement. The 6th of July, Menotti Lerro announced that the poet Maurizio Cucchi was chosen as new Honorary President of the Centro Contemporaneo delle Arti. A deplorable episode happened to Salento Cilento "The Poetry Village" on Sunday the 7th of July. As stressed by Andrea Caruso for rainews, the new Mayor, Michele Santoro, ordered without consulting anyone and without any official document approved, to destroy with pickaxes the poetic tiles with unpublished overwritten verses dedicated from all the winners of the Cilento Poetry Prize to the Cilento's territory. The case was quickly stigmatized by the national press like a regrettable and uncivilized act. In an interview with Francesco Sampogna, Menotti Lerro asked to the Mayor Michele Santoro to give his resignation. In addition the poet Davide Rondoni sent a letter to Il Mattino to express all his indignation for the mayor's reckless decision. Moreover Pasquale Scaldaferri, a journalist of rainews, stressed how the complete outrage was nowadays impossible to imagine in our society, expecially after the shame happened with the destruction of art to Palmira in 2013. In the while time, on Tuesday the 16th of July, in England the Cambridge Scholars Publishing published the paperback edition of the volume The Empathic Movement. Moreover, the day after, Menotti Lerro inaugurated a new literary column with the title "Il Foglio Empatico" (in English: "The Empathic Sheet") for the online newspaper "Il Quotidiano di Salerno". In his first article Lerro interrogated the Mayor of Omignano Cilento ("Il Paese degli Aforismi") asking if he still wished to support the project or not, accusing the same Mayor, Raffaele Mondelli, to never invest money in culture and in particular to not promote the "aphoristic village". On the 19th of July the official Website of Roccadaspide (with Gabriele Iuliano as Mayor) announced that the 30 artistic canvases painted and showing poems hand written by Menotti Lerro some years ago, will constitute a permanent exhibition in Piazza Crescella in a dedicated room.

The Movement's Prize
The International Cilento Poetry Prize (financed in 2022 from Italian Ministry of Culture for 140.500 Euro ) and supported from the University of Salerno is considered by the Movement as its main present for deserving and empathetic artists. In addition the Prize is officially supported by: Regione Campania, Provincia di Salerno, Comune di Salerno, Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio Salerno e Avellino, Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni, Comune di Salento Cilento, Comune di Roccadaspide Cilento.

Some exhibitions and cultural events since 2019

 * The Centro Contemporaneo delle Arti inaugurates its seat in Vallo della Lucania
 * The Centro Contemporaneo delle Arti opens an own seat to Milan
 * Giampiero Neri gave a Poetry Reading in occasion of the open seat in Milan of the Centro Contemporaneo delle Arti
 * On 17th of May 2019 Renato Galbusera and Maria Jannelli organized an art exhibition in the seat of the Contemporary centre of Arts with the title "Degli istinti, dell'estetica passione".
 * On 8th of June the Contemporary Center of Arts organized an art exhibition with original canvases by Ennio Morlotti with the title "Sedimenti del tempo". To introduce the operas the art critic Elena Pontiggia from Brera Academy.
 * On 18th of May the Contemporary center of Arts organized a lesson by the Professor Elvio Annese from Brera Academy about Poetic Documentaries with the title "Incontro sul documentario poetico con visione di filmati realizzati dall'autore".
 * On 9th of June in the seat of the Contemporary Center of Arts a group of visual artists organized an art exhibition dedicated to the new invented character of Menotti Lerro: Donna Giovanna. The title of the exhibition was "Donna Giovanna, l'ingannatrice di Salerno".
 * On 12th of June Omar Galliani and Menotti Lerro organized an art exhibition inviting the best students of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera to expose their own operas. The title was "Nero su Bianco".
 * Tiziano Rossi gave a Poetry Reading in the Centro Contemporaneo delle Arti seat
 * The painter Omar Galliani at the Provicial Museum of Salerno
 * Exhibition of Antonello Pelliccia with the title "Paesaggi dell'ombra" on 16th October 2021
 * Exhibition of Menotti Lerro's canvases at Pinacoteca Provinciale di Salerno
 * Exhibition of original canvases of classical artists with the title "Il femminile trasfigurato nel mito e nell'arte visiva moderna". Works by: Gustave Doré, Émile Bernard, Antoine Calbet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Louis André Lagrange, Paul César Helleu, Jean Dufy, Eugène Carrière, Hippolyte Petitjean, Louis Valtat, Félix Vallotton, Charles Camoin, Felice Casorati, Giovanni Boldini, Renato Guttuso.
 * Concert "I Battiti della Notte" by Menotti Lerro and Tomasz Krezymon
 * Premio Cilento Poesia "Special Edition" for Franco Loi and Roberto Carifi at the Brera Academy of Milan
 * Conference at the Brera Academy on the "New Manifesto on the Arts"
 * Conference at the Central Library, Edinburgh on the "New Manifesto on the Arts"
 * Cesare Nardi and Antonello Pelliccia, art exhibition with the title "Genova – Carrara A/R"
 * Art exhibition by Cesare Nardi and Antonello Pelliccia with the title "Requiem"
 * Premio Cilento Poesia at Salerno
 * Conference to present The Empathic Movement at Università degli Studi di Salerno