Palermo City of Culture, artistic table by Pistoletto at BIT

Palermo - An original project with high cultural value and humanitarian spirit, strongly and generously oriented towards inclusion. Palermo is not the Italian City of Culture 2018, at least not just that: "Palermo is the City of Cultures, is a point of reference for all those who arrive and feel as local as we do", said the city Mayor Leoluca Orlando, who on 12 February presented the program for Palermo City of Culture at the BIT, Milan's International Tourism Exchange (Borsa Internazionale del Turismo). He was a guest at the press conference held by Sicily's Governor, Nello Musumeci, and councilors for Tourism, Sandro Pappalardo, and Cultural Heritage, Vittorio Sgarbi. Mayor Orlando and his Culture Councilor Andrea Cusumano announced that "Love Difference", the artistic table crafted by Michelangelo Pistoletto, a symbol of Mediterranean cultures, will be assembled on 14 February at the Fondazione Sant'Elia, where it will be kept until the end of Palermo2018. Michelangelo Pistoletto will become an Honorary Citizen of Palermo on 10 March, during the "Palermo Laboratory of Cultural Dialog" event organized by Mibact for the European Year of Heritage 2018. Also on 10 March, UNESCO organized a White Night, when the monuments of Arab-Norman Palermo will stay open late - the Cathedral, the Cappella Palatina, Martorana, San Cataldo, San Giovanni degli Eremiti, Castello della Zisa (which will feature the brand new bookshop and new reception areas) and Ponte dell'Ammiraglio. Outside the old city, the Monreale Dome and Cloister. "The great events organized for Palermo City of Culture fall on an already synergistic plan of activities, consisting of several festivals, theater performances and other events, that have been animating Palermo's life for years", said Mayor Orlando and Councilor Cusumano. In the last forty years, Palermo has changed more than any other European city: it turned around from Mafia Capital to City of Culture, it successfully re-invested its energy and heritage made of many stratified cultures. This is why Mibact chose the city's project, Palermo laboratory of cultural dialog, as one of the 5 key events for the European Year of Heritage 2018". On 2 March, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture will present, for the first time ever, its project for the reconstruction of the Suq, the Omayyadi mosque and the Aleppo minaret, all UNESCO Heritage, that were destroyed in 2013 during the conflict. On this occasion, Palermo will showcase a Gold Leaf Koran, 1.2m by 1.4m, from the AKTC collection.