A conversation about arts, inclusion, faith and bioethics.

To celebrate 11 years of supporting the blind and visually impaired, this small event is an opportunity to embrace our
humanity to meet new people, create friendships and enjoy each other, as through time, a good conversation has always been a crucial starting point towards hope.

Schedule

4:00 pm meetings and greetings
Father Daniel Mauricio (LC) will give a blessing to the event; a Brazilian priest who adopted Italy as his home, he will talk about the importance of hospitality. Then, I will briefly share how my experience supporting the blind and other vulnerable groups shifted my research, and life, and views about the importance of equality and inclusion in society and the influence
of BF Skinner as inspiration. To celebrate the initiative, we have the honour to welcome Dr. Niccolò Zeppi, President the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, of the territory of Firenze.

4:25pm –  To open up the conversation, we have the honour to receive Professor Luca Uzielli, Professor Emeritus in Wood Technology at the University of Florence. A renowned international expert in the field of engineering aspects in the conservation of wood architectural and historical heritage and an innovator in wood perseveration and technology, Professor Uzielli has worked and is still involved, among many other projects, on the monitoring of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Professor Uzielli’s experience and life work is a story in its own right. It can inspire us on possible new avenues to see the world like a painting and on not focusing solely on what is so evident in front of us, but also on developing an understanding about what is hidden behind and enables art to be realized and to persist over time.

4:40 pm – Mr Andrea Bianco, a blind sculptor, recently featured in the Creed Vatican magazine for his magnificent sculptural work, inspired by the Shroud of Turin; his work has been exhibited at Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, where the UNESCO Chair is established on the occasion of the 15th Anniversary of the inauguration of the Permanent Exhibition “Who is the Man of the Shroud?” and features in magazines and many other places. Andrea will share his experience of blindness, the arts, understanding of inclusion and faith.

5:00 pm – Eminent Prof Emanuela Marinelli, expert in natural and geological science and one of the most influential experts in Shroud Turin Studies and the organiser of the Conference Mundial of Shroud in 2000. With a non-stop record of publication’s in the field Prof Marinelli will now share how working with Andrea changed her ideas and perceptions of science and inclusion.

5:20 pm – Eminent Professor of Philosophy and director of the Institute for the Science of Faith, at Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, Father Rafael Pascual (LC) will discuss the importance of interdisciplinary perspectives
in the study of religion, and in particular in the study of the Shroud of Turin. Today the Postgraduate Diploma in Shroud Studies gives the opportunities for students to explore areas from archaeology and history to Spiritual theology. The participation of Father Rafael Pascual in this event is very special to me, as he was my director of research on my project of the experience of the Shroud beyond blindness.

5:40 to 6:10 pm – A conversation, wrapping up & sharing ideas Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights, Rome, we welcome Prof. Alberto García Gómez that will talk about the reality of inclusion in respect of human rights and the importance of vulnerability in bioethics, as well as arts as a form of education in universal values and
principles. Sharing UNESCO Chair’s vision that arts and a good conversation can help towards a better world, he will present some artworks of the Bioethics Art Competition on Human Vulnerability. The competition’s theme centred around the principles of respect, pluralism, personal integrity, and human vulnerability as defined in articles 8 & 12 of the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. Artists were encouraged to reflect on goodness, truth and beauty by means of painting, collage, printmaking, drawing, mixed media, and photography.

When: Saturday 12th November from 4pm to 6pm (doors open 3:30 pm)
Where: Palazzo San Niccolò, Via di S. Niccolò, 79, 50125 Firenze FI.