In psychology, novelty seeking (NS) is a personality trait associated with exploratory activity in response to novel stimulation, impulsivedecision making, extravagance in approach to reward cues, quick loss of temper, and avoidance of frustration.
That is, novelty seeking (or sensation seeking) refers to the tendency
to pursue new experiences with intense emotional sensations. It is a
multifaceted behavioral construct that includes thrill seeking, novelty
preference, risk taking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence. The
novelty-seeking trait is considered a heritable tendency of individuals
to take risks for the purpose of achieving stimulation and seeking new
environments and situations that make their experiences more intense.
This trait has been associated with the level of motive and excitement
in response to novelty. Persons with high levels of novelty seeking have
been described as more impulsive and disorderly than low novelty
seekers and have a higher propensity to get involved in risky
activities, such as starting to misuse drugs, engaging in risky sexual
activities, and suffering accidental injuries. It is measured in the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire as well as the later version Temperament and Character Inventory and is considered one of the temperament dimensions of personality. Like the other temperament dimensions, it has been found to be highly heritable. Another related term, Variety seeking
or variety-seeking buying behavior describes a consumer's desire to
search for alternative products even if she or he is satisfied with a
current product. For example, someone may drink tea with lunch one day
but choose orange juice the next day specifically to get something
different. High NS has been suggested to be related to low dopaminergic activity.
A research study[6] found that Novelty seeking had inverse relationships with other Temperament and Character Inventory dimensions, particularly harm avoidance and to a more moderate extent self-directedness and self-transcendence. Novelty seeking is positively associated with the five factor model trait of extraversion and to a lesser extent openness to experience and is inversely associated with conscientiousness. Novelty seeking is positively related to Impulsive sensation seeking from Zuckerman's Alternative five model of personality and with psychoticism in Eysenck's model.
When novelty seeking is defined as a decision process (i.e. in terms of
the tradeoff between foregoing a familiar choice option in favor of
deciding to explore a novel choice option), dopamine is directly shown
to increase novelty seeking behavior.
Specifically, blockade of the dopamine transporter, causing a rise in
extracellular dopamine levels, increases the propensity of monkeys to
select novel over familiar choice options.
Causes
Genetics
Although
the exact causes for novelty seeking behaviors is unknown, there may be
a link to genetics. Studies have found an area on the Dopamine receptor D4
gene on chromosome 11 that is characterized by several repeats in a
particular base sequence. Multiple studies have identified a link to
genetics, in particular one conducted by Dr. Benjamin and colleagues,
where individuals who had longer alleles of this gene had higher
novelty-seeking scores than individuals with the shorter allele. In another study relating to the gene and financial risk, Dr. Dreber and colleagues found a correlation between increased risk-taking and the DRD4 gene in young males.
Although there are studies that support the link between NS and
dopaminergic activity via DRD4, there are also studies that do not
exhibit a strong correlation. The importance of DRD4 in novelty seeking
is yet to be confirmed conclusively.
Dopamine
In addition to potential heredity, novelty seeking behaviors are seen with the modulation of dopamine. The overall effect of dopamine when exposed to a novel stimuli is a mass release of the neurotransmitter in reward systems of the brain including the mesolimbic pathway.
The mesolimbic pathway is active in every type of addiction and is
involved with reinforcement. Because of this activation in the brain, NS
has been linked to personality disorders as well as substance abuse and
other addictive behaviors. DRD4 receptors are highly expressed in areas
of the limbic system associated with emotion and cognition. SNPs such as rs4680 have also been examined within this realm of study.
Age
It is
important to note the individual's age with novelty seeking. This
behavior will decrease with time, especially as the brains of
adolescents and young adults finalize in development. Possible factors
of variation include gender, ethnicity, temperament and environment
Personality traits
are patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that reflect the
tendency to respond in certain ways under certain circumstances.
Personality is influenced by genetic and environmental factors and associated with mental health. Beside the environment factor, genetic variants can be detected for personality traits. These traits are polygenic.
Significant genetic variants are present for most of the behavioral
traits. There is a consistency in detection of genetic variants and
genomic association for traits derived from pedigree.
Personality trait research has been conducted both for humans and non-human animals like dogs.
Trait theory
For humans, the Big Five personality traits, also known as the five-factor model (FFM) or the OCEAN model, is the prevailing model for personality traits. When factor analysis (a statistical technique) is applied to personality survey
data, some words or questionnaire items used to describe aspects of
personality are often applied to the same person. For example, someone
described as conscientious
is more likely to be described as "always prepared" rather than
"messy". This theory uses descriptors of common language and therefore
suggests five broad dimensions commonly used to describe the human personality and psyche.
Extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. challenging/detached)
Neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident).
Methods
The methods mostly used in genomics of personality traits' studies are two: analytic methods and non-analytic ones (such as questionnaires).
Analytic
Analytical techniques that can be used to measure genomics of personality include:
GWAS, genome wide association study is a method used to define markers (these markers are single nucleotide polymorphism, SNPs) across the genomes
in order to better understand the contribution of genetics to
personality traits. Since SNPs occur in the DNA between genes, GWAS
technique aims to find those genes that are associated with certain
personality traits, for example neuroticism was reported to be
associated with intronic variant in MAGI1 and openness with variants near RASA1. Recently, UK Biobank achieved several SNPs that are associated with neuroticism. The first GWAS studies on all five human personality factors (i.e. neuroticism, extraversion,
openness to experience, conscientiousness and agreeableness) used a
sample of 3972 individuals from an isolated population on Sardinia,
Italy, and found 362 129 SNPs.
DNA genotyping, which can be performed through different kits, for example:
The CanineHD BeadChip containing 173,662 validated SNPs derived from the Dog Genome Sequencing Project. This chip has 99.99% of reproducibility, it is a PCR-free protocol, it provides a uniform genome-wide coverage by the 70 markers placed on the platform, it has a high-throughput (up to 12 samples in parallel) and it can be applied to the interrogation of genetic variation
in any domestic dog breed. The full set of SNPs that it contains can be
analysed with the purpose of explaining the proportion of the phenotypic
traits' variances and to show the "genomic heritabilities" of the
traits (considering the total of the autosomal and X-linked estimates).
For example, the study that used this approach revealed a significant genetic variance present for most of the behavioural traits examined.
The Infinium OmniExpress-24 BeadChip array containing 710,000 SNPs.
The data obtained from the DNA genotyping can be filtered by many
software, such the Genome Studio one, which is able to analyze SNP data
across 5 million markers and probes and that can detect sample outliers.
Moreover, the data can be then subjected to stringent quality controls,
such that of PLINK v1.9.
RNA sequencing can provide a more precise elucidation of common genetic influences on gene expression
in the developing brain and the molecular differences that could confer
susceptibility to neuropsychiatric disorders. With this technique
combined to the GWAS, it was possible, to provide the first eQTL dataset derived exclusively from the human fetal brain. One example of protocol used to do it is the following:
total RNA was treated with DNase and purified. Integrity of RNA was
assessed and then RNA-Seq libraries were prepared using 1 μg of purified
total RNA, depleting ribosomal RNA and modifying the RNA fragmentation
times for lower RIN samples (<7). Also library size was assessed and
then libraries were quantified. At the end, libraries were sequenced,
generating at least 50 million read pairs (100 million reads) per
sample.
Whole-Genome Bisulfite Sequencing (WGBS) to examine DNA methylation
in cellular subpopulations isolated from human brain tissue. This
analysis is important, because DNA methylation differences between
neuronal and non-neuronal populations have been widely reported and many
neuropsychiatric diseases preferentially affect neuronal subpopulations
present in particular brain regions. An example of WGBS protocol is the following: samples were fragmented and then they were bisulfite converted after size selection. Amplification was performed after the bisulfite
conversion using Kapa Hifi Uracil + polymerase at the following cycling
conditions: 98 °C 45 s/8 cycles: 98 °C 15 s, 65 °C 30 s, 72 °C 30
s/72 °C 1 min. Final libraries were run for quality control purposes.
Then, libraries were quantified by qPCR. Libraries were also sequenced
using a 125 bp paired-end single indexed run.
Karyotyping is performed to determine fetal sex. Sex is a parameter considered as a covariate in some studies of characterization of personality traits.
Candidate gene approach focus on genes whose function
suggests an association with a trait. Originally, it was assumed that
few key genes were responsible for the observed heritable variance of
personality features. Even though the complexity behind the
polygenicity of personality traits was demonstrated, candidate gene
studies are still performed today. The small number of genes selected
for this type of studies are included in neurotransmission patterns, like the ones involving dopamine and serotonin. The most studied candidate genes and polymorphism related to personality, with the most informative meta-analyses, are DRD4 and 5HTT. DRD4 encodes for the D4 dopamine receptor, while 5HTT encodes for a serotonin transporter responsible for the reuptake of this neurotransmitter. According to some publications, SNPs in DRD4 are associated with extraversion and novelty seeking. Also variations in 5HTT are associated with neuroticism and harm avoidance.
Family and twins studies: The studies of genomics
of personality traits involves families and specifically twins, because
they have a high heritability of the traits. The families and twins
studies have showed that personality traits are moderately heritable,
and can predict various lifetime outcomes, including psychopathology. The identical twins have a heritability of 40%, suggesting that the additive genetic effects
are responsible for the variance of personality traits for a moderate
portion. Family and adoption studies have yielded of approximately 30%.
The sex is not involved in heritability of personality traits, on the
other end environmental differences can increase or decrease the
importance of genetic factors. Twins data shows that genetic influences
contribute to personality stability and are relatively constant with age
whereas environmental influence on personality increases with age. In
addition, twin and family studies show strong genetic correlations
across diverse cognitive domains, suggesting pleiotropy, and across levels of ability, substantiating the view of general intelligence as an etiological continuum. The families have members affected by psychiatric disorder,
because these diseases can be considered as extremes of normal
tendencies and personal traits. It is intended to foster a biological
analysis of behavior in order to study neurological disorder
and find a correlation with human personality, meaning that heritable
variation in personality traits would share a common genetic basis with
psychiatric diseases. The geneticists define the phenotype of the
patients following the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO)
which provides a standardized vocabulary of phenotypic abnormalities
encountered in human disease. The study of complex trait in genetics
presents a gap defined as "missing heritability", so a single genetic variations cannot account for much of the heritability of diseases, behaviors, and other phenotypes. For example, a person susceptibility to disease
may depend more on the combined effect of all the genes in the
background than on the disease genes in the foreground, or the role of
genes may have been severely overestimated.
Non analytic
Non-analytic methods mainly use approach is that of questionnaire, here discuss:
Questionnaires:
As previously mentioned, questionnaires were often used as another tool to analyze the association of a behaviour to genetic variances.
In some studies, questionnaires were indirectly given at the owners of the animals involved in the experiment and in other studies they were directly given to the patients involved. These questionnaires were:
C-BARQ, which stands for Canine Behavioural Assessment
and Research Questionnaire. It is a survey-based approach used in a
large number of studies on dog behaviour, where the dog owner's answers
to validated questionnaires to assess the personality traits of the dog.
C-BARQ was developed at the University of Pennsylvania
and its reliability, validity and standardized test scores support its
use as a tool in behavioural researches. The C-BARQ survey contains 101
questions regarding the dog's behavioural response to various
situations, with answers marked on a five-step scale. Depending on the
results obtained from the compilation of the survey the dogs are divided
into 11-14 behavioural traits' groups.
Demographic questionnaires about general information of the
dogs, such as sex, neuter status, housing, coat colour, health status,
exercise per day and "Role" (based on the activities of the dog).
The data obtained from questionnaires can be analysed by the Mixed
Linear Model (REML) approach, that provides a consistent and accurate
estimation of non-normally-distributed traits. This approach can be
implemented using software as ASReml.
Self-report questionnaires, which investigate several aspects of participants' life. Some examples are the following:
The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), defines 3 traits of personality: psychoticism (characterized by aggressiveness and interpersonal hostility), extraversion (manifested in outgoing, energetic behaviour) and neuroticism (typified by emotional stability).
The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) defines 3 traits of personality that are based on the biochemical bases of temperament: novelty seeking, harm avoidance and reward dependence.
TheTemperament and Character Inventory (TCI) defines 4 personality: persistence (or perseverance despite fatigue or frustration), self-directedness (the ability to modify behaviour in order to achieve personal goals), cooperativeness (the tendency to exhibit agreeable relations with others) and self-transcendence (associated with experiencing spiritual aspects of the self).
The Five Factor model (NEO-PI) is based on biological mechanisms shaping 5 higher-order traits (the big five): neuroticism (proneness to experience negative affect), extraversion (motivation to engage with others), openness to experience (inventive or curious behaviour), agreeableness (friendliness and compassion toward others) and conscientiousness
(attentive and organized behaviour). This questionnaire is the most
commonly used for genetic studies and it has also derivative types, such
as the NEO-PI-R and NEO-FFI.
UK Biobank self-report questionnaire has several questions related to loneliness and social isolation and it permit to identify cases and controls and then also to compare genetic differences.
Some examples of questions are: 'Do you often feel lonely?', to which
individuals answered 'yes' (recorded as cases) or 'no' (controls);
other questions are based on the quality of social interactions as: 'How
often are you able to confide in someone close to you?' (cases were
defined as those who answered 'Never or almost never', controls were
defined as those who answered 'Almost daily').
Correlation with psychiatric disorders
Scientists demonstrated that most of personality traits cluster together and they also cluster with most neuropsychiatric disorders and are therefore related. In research, scientists used linkage disequilibrium regression score
to investigate the correlation between personality traits and
psychiatric disorder. According to LDSC, there is a positive correlation
between major depression disorder and neuroticism and a small correlation between schizophrenia and neuroticism;
these correlation have also been confirmed in twins studies. Also,
neuroticism and openness show strong genetic correlation. Besides,
scientists found that there is a positive correlation between first
principal component and all psychiatric disorders, but first principal
component showed negative correlation with conscientiousness and
agreeableness.
Personality features are highly linked with mental, social and
physical outcome. For example, scientists realized that schizophrenia
and bipolar disorders cluster with openness. Moreover, they demonstrated
that ADHD shows the highest correlation with personality trait especially extraversion.
Recently, the negative correlation between neuroticism and loneliness
was identified as well as a strong correlation between anxiety and
neuroticism. Plus, narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism
have association with low agreeableness. In general, neuroticism and
other personality traits show negative correlation, while openness,
extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness shows positive
correlation.
Example for the genes that they find to be correlative are:
Within 8p23.1, MTMR9 has intronic
variant which has association with extraversion and also with
neuroticism shows inverse association. Another one is 12q23.3, WSCD2
which is found for extraversion, by using GWAS, it had been shown that
this locus has association with bipolar disorder. In addition, L3MBTL2 is associated with both schizophrenia and neuroticism. Another gene is DRD4 which has association with both ADHD and novelty seeking behavior.
Examples
Genetic
basis of Dog Personality Traits: in different genomes of dogs, several
SNPs are found close to genes with known neurological or behavioral
functions. The TH (tyrosin hydroxylase) gene, whose product is LDOPA,
the precursor of the neurotransmitter dopamine, is located 1 Mb from
the SNP on CFA18 associated with agitated behaviour. Mutation in this
gene cause hyperactivity disorder.
The TH gene has been associated with activity, impassivity, and
inattention in two dog breeds. The SNP associated with NoiseFear is
located 0.27 Mb from CADPS2 on CFA20. CADPS2 is a member of a gene family encoding calcium-binding proteins that regulate the exocytosis
of neuropeptide encompassing (dense-core) vesicles from neurons and
neuron endocrine cells. The gene and its variants have been associated
with autism in humans and noise phobia reported for dogs with this SNPs.
Similar SNPs in dogs and in humans are correlated with the same gene
which has different outcomes in terms of personality traits.
Intelligence is one of the traits that are affected by genetics.
Inherited DNA differences are responsible for substantial individual
differences in intelligence test scores the 10% variance in intelligence
scores explained by the SNP heritability.
From twins studies it is possible to consider neuroticism as a
heritable trait, as shown in a meta-analysis of data from over 29 000
twin pairs, in which they found this correlation in 16 twin pairs,
independently from the sex of individuals.
Limitations
GWAS
studies require very large sample size in order to be able to identify
the polymorphisms which are responsible for the variance observed, since
personality traits are influenced by many genes, each one explaining
only a small amount of variations (1 – 2%).
Whole genome bisulfite sequence method has some limitations, because
it is an exclusively qualitative method, so, it is possible to analyze
the methylation status of only a limited number of CpG dinucleotides.
Candidate gene association studies led to inconsistent and
inconclusive results due to the fact that the effect of the loci under
study was considered to be much larger than it really was, wrong
assumptions were made regarding the importance of genes related to key
neurotransmitter systems, regulatory and noncoding regions were not
taken into consideration.
Family and twins studies may result in the confounding of pedigree genetic effects with shared family environmental effects.
Moreover, shared environment effects could obscure dominance variation
causing dizygotic twins to appear more alike than monozygotic twins.
Launch of the New Manifesto on the Arts by Menotti Lerro and Antonello Pelliccia at the literary Caffè Giubbe Rosse. Florence, 2019
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.
The purpose of the Empathic Movement is to support the importance of emotional intelligence in response to the technocratic
age, rejecting extreme individualism and social exclusions. They
consider the “truth” as impossible to grasp except for fragments and for
this reason they support a fragmented vision through a subjective
“point of view” and the “interdisciplinary” for the arts to have more
possibilities to catch little “truths” of the existence.
Empathism advocate a cultured art and believe in the importance of the return of the figure of the artist as a guide.
Its major aim is to reunify all the arts and artists coming from every
field to let every artist to improve himself in order to tend towards
the figure of a Total Artist (and, as a consequence, push for a
reunification of peoples) through a common empathetic feeling.
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. They also 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
and also to react in that moment to a very difficul period for the
world due to the COVID-19Pandemic
and the consequent deep physical and psychological closure. As Lerro
affirmed: "Society needed again the figure of the artist as guide"; the
journalist Roberto Guidetti answered declaring that the Empathic
Movement was really born in the perfect moment to give a direction to
all people in that new tragic situation.
However, since 2019 a new growing group of joined artists 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 International 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. He stated he would never have written a classical manifesto in the contemporary age because it would have been limiting. 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". 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 - dedicated to Giorgio Barberi Squarotti, Alessandro Serpieri (writer) and Remo Bodei, considered "infinita luce" (In English: "Infinite light") - the Italian poet Giampiero Neri explains how the movement developed and asked to "all people having the same principles, to join to them".
The poet Vivian Lamarque invited all artists to "trace their own
centimeter" affirming that they are "little voices / for a great choir". 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. 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.
On the 26th of January at the "Circolo della Stampa di Avellino"
a conference, about the new Movement, based on the Special Edition
dedicated to it from the Magazine "Riscontri", was organized.
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 was 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 and Carlos Medina and the Italian sculptor Cesare Nardi; 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, Luigia Sorrentino (journalist RAI), Mario Fresa, Massimo Dagnino, Rossella Tempesta, Gabriela Fantato, 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 lecture and poet Anna Correale Sorbonne University; 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 philosophers Remo Bodei, Emeritus professorPisa 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 anthropology 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 graphic arts at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti
Gabriele Ivan Di Battista; the Italian Head Teacher of "Liceo Classico
Parmenide" Francesco Massanova; the Italian former Head teacher of
"Liceo Classico Parmenide" Carlo di Legge; 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 Secondary 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 psychotherapist,
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' Fabrizio Scomparin (nephew of Lucio Amelio) and Stefano Nasti; the Italian lecture creator of the prize 'Una fiaba tra i murales'
Giuseppe Sica; the Italian founder of the festival (which festival
about the Classical Greek Theatre has joined to the Movement too) "Velia-Teatro", Michele Murino; 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" located in Viterbo Ulisse Mariani and Rosanna Schiralli; the Italian director of the National Dance Academy (Italy), located in Rome, 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. The Movement is presented also 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 2023, the Museo Ugo Guidi located in Forte dei marmi adhered to the movement. The Paleontological museum of Magliano Vetere, (Adriano Piano as Mayor), 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 an article by the journalist and historian Nicola Femminella titled
"La svolta culturale del Cilento realizzata da Menotti Lerro con le sue
innovazioni" (in English: "The cultural turning point of Cilento
achieved by Menotti Lerro with his innovations"), the same Femminella
affirmed that "the Cultural Pyramid, with its 25 new cultural villages
involved, guarantees to the Movement a suitable epicentre, determining
what we could define as a true Lerrian miracle, having thus transformed
the territory from rural to cultural".
On the Magazine "Riscontri" the literay critic Francesco D'Episcopo
defined the Movement as "a great invention of Menotti Lerro, who was
heroic also to leave his job at the Mondadori publishing house of Segrate when he was only 25, to follow his pulsions about literature". Professor Mauro Afro Borella from Accademia Albertina
affirmed that we were assisting to a deep change from silly irony,
isolation and hipertrophied self to a new age of sobriety and
reunification of the Arts and people, hypothesizing a passage from Postmodernism to Empathism, or considering Empathism as the first movement of a Post-postmodernism.
Myth of Unus by Omar Galliani based on the tale written by 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.
The Italian singers Michele Pecora and Santino Scarpa dedicate their
own songs ("I poeti" from Pecora and "Dune Buggy", "Brotherly love" and
"Angels and Beans" from Scarpa, sung from him in the cult films of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill) to the Empathic Movement. On the 16th of January the Museo Archeologico di Salerno invited Menotti Lerro to present the Movement.
In February, the Hungarian Opera singer Istvàn Szelei affirmed that the
Movement greatness consisted, among other things, to not have an
ideological or admonitory moral but conceptual and spiritual, giving a
universal meaning. He underlined how the "New Cultural Triangle of
Ancient Cilento", in Southern Italy, was dreamed and created, and can be
defined "as the therapeutic center of the European spirit".
On 17th of March the farmhouse "Parmenide" located in Casal Velino adhered to the Empathic Movement "for a new philosophy of food". On the 21th of March, 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 International 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 "Revolution and innovation through the new contemporary
artistic-literary movement: Empathism!" (In Italian: "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 International 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. The poet Davide Rondoni sent a letter to Il Mattino to express all his indignation for the mayor's reckless decision. Pasquale Scaldaferri, a journalist of rainews,
stressed how the complete outrage was nowadays impossible to imagine in
our society, especially after the shame happened with the destruction
of art to Palmyra in 2013. The journalist and poet Ottavio Rossani on the poetry blog of the Corriere della Sera
asked "Who are these people who are destroying the wonderful and deep
work made in years by the poet Menotti Lerro to change his historical
rural land in a land of poetry and high culture?"
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.
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.
On Monday the 22th of July, talking to Radio Lombardia, the actor Mario Pirovano, well known for his work on the theatre of Dario Fo and Franca Rame, on the occasion of the awarding of the prize received in Peschici,
the "Trabucco Prize-2024", talked of the importance of the Empathic
Movement in his life in particular, Pirovano affirmed, because has given
him new stimuli in the last years. On the 19th of July Professor Francesco D'Episcopo from University of Naples Federico II
sent an open letter to the new Mayor of Salento Cilento ("The Poetry
Village") to remind him about his painted and hand written tile on the
City hall's wall... and how much Menotti Lerro worked to bring Cilento to be known and respectable in the World; On the 20th of July, the Director of the "Museo del Somaro" of Gualdo Tadino, Nello Teodori, with an official letter announced its adherence to the Empathic Movement.
On Tuesday the 23th of July the newspaper "Il Quotidiano di Salerno"
published the second "Empathic Sheet" of Menotti Lerro. In the end of
the article, stressing the ostracism they gave him, Lerro invited "all artists and people of the world to resist
to the brutal sentiments circulating nowadays in our society, and,
furthermore, he added some "points of no return". In particular he
affirmed that the Cilento International Poetry Prize
will never be organized again in Salento Cilento ("The Poetry Village")
as long as the present administration will be in command; in another
key point he declared that he will never organize again a cultural event
in Omignano Cilento ("The Aphorisms Village") as long as the present
administration will be in command.
On the "Empathic Sheet N°3" Menotti Lerro praised all the Mayors of the
Cilento's territory helping the Empathic Movement to develop its
epicenter (the Cultural Pyramid of Cilento).
On the 1th of August the Empathic Masters, the Italian lecture Giuseppe
Sica and Spanish Art Critic Rosa María Román Garrido, assisted their own
territories, OrriaCilento and Cocentaina, to sign a twinning agreement in name of the Seventeenth-century painter Paolo De Matteis. Agostino Astore, Mayor of Orria and the fraction Piano Vetrale - "The Murals Village", stressed how important this agreement was also in relation to their membership to the Cultural Pyramid of Cilento, they affixed in the main square of the village, and to the Empathic Movement. On the 8th of August Antonello Pelliccia, Lino Vairetti and Deborah Farina organized an event in Carrara with title "Dimensione 70", as explained on the daily newspaper Il Tirreno, in collaboration with the Contemporary Centre of Arts and in name of the Empathic Movement.
In the "Empathic Sheet N°4" Menotti Lerro paid tribute to all the
artists who were bringing the "empathic discourse" both in Italy and
abroad. He declared to have opened to a younger generation (compared
with Masters) of artists, quoting the last two anthologies of "new
Italian poets" published by Giulio Einaudi editore,
describing himself as particularly pleased with the accessions of the
poets he invited (Fantato, Tempesta, Frene, Fresa, Dagnino) "considered
also the paradoxical difficulty to involve the generation closest to
himself". On the 10th of August on the Arabic newspaper "Al-Araby, The New Arab",
answering to some questions, Menotti Lerro explained how he created the
Empathic Movement to give answers to a very closed and corrupted World,
in particular he stressed the corruption in the Italian sistem,
included the Italian publishing sector.
On the "Empathic Sheet N°5" Lerro affirmed that while Italians were
criticizing and mocking hardly the "brilliant and very authoritative Western Canon drawn up by Harold Bloom",
they were at the same time building a "Domestic Canon" made through a
corrupted editorial publishing sistem centered on friendships and
clientelistic relationships (same as for Italian academic world)
determining the contemporary disappearance of poetry books from all the
Italian book shops due to a lack of trust of the readers, tired to find
bad "new lines" to buy. He affirmed that it is different in other
countries as for instance England where they use to select in a more meritocratic way their own new authors to publish. On the 30th of August, in OrriaCilento, in occasion of the publication in UK of the paperback edition of the volume The Empathic Movement,
a cultural summit with Menotti Lerro and the so defined "good local
politics", whose exponents were appointed by Lerro as "Custodi della
Piramide" (In English: "Guardians of the Pyramid"), was organized. The
firts "guardians" included: Agostino Astore, Mayor of Piano Vetrale "The Murals Village"; Francesco Castiello, Italian Senator; Gabriele Iuliano, Mayor of Roccadaspide "The Defense Village"; Gabriele De Marco, former mayor of Salento, Campania "The Poetry Village"; Adriano Piano, Mayor of Magliano Vetere "The Paleontological Village".
Manifesto of Empathism
The
"Nuovo Manifesto sulle Arti" (In English: "New Manifesto on the Arts")
conceived by Menotti Lerro and Antonello Pelliccia as an oral speech
"Sulle Arti" (In English: "On the Arts") in occasion on the foundation
of the Contemporary Centre of Arts, and defined as "New Manifesto" by
the philosopher Remo Bodei,
was firts published on the newspaper "Cronache di Salerno" on Tuesday,
the 27 of February 2019, and some months later (14 October 2019) on the
literary magazine "ClanDestino".
In 2019 the "Nuovo Manifesto sulle Arti" was also published in the Magazine Annali Storici di Principato Citra.
In 2020, the New Manifesto of Arts was published by Zona editrice in both: English and Italian versions.
In 2022 the "New Manifesto" was published in the Magazine "Riscontri".
Manifesto Contents
The
Manifesto, written in first person by Menotti Lerro and Antoello
Pelliccia, starts explaining the reasons why Lerro decided to "join to
many friends with different artistical roots". He stated that he
understood "Art is only apparently divisible" and expressed his deep
sorrow to be unable to possess and play with other arts ("At the moment,
I nearly faint for the emotion in confessing it to myself: I need every
art to be able to vibrate as I should like, to say as I would like, to
represent it as I feel and see.")
which would have help himself to better express his interior world and
to be also "a less incomplete artist"; consequentially, joining to other
artists was, in his opinion, the most viable solution: it was his own
way to become a better artist, a "Total Artist": "It will be this union
to give us the Total Artist we are looking for".
Lerro put at the centre the need to have a new cultured art, stressing
the importance of the tradition because "...in every art, those who have
tried to innovate while forgetting tradition, have created a mostly
ephemeral revolution that is often less innovative than the one lived by
artists in previous centuries". For this reason the movement opposes the tabula rasa principle.
Similar ideas expressed Antonello Pelliccia declaring the importance of
interdisciplinarity and adding that "Art has always influenced the
social climate, identifying, suggesting, and anticipating possible
solutions to the problems of living and living together".
Another important point is about "the phenomenon of the contemporary
plagiarism among artists" due to the media and the Internet in
particular, adding that " we must have the courage to say that this is
happening!". In conclusion of the Manifesto, Lerro declared as a
foundamental aim "to discover where the Total Artist hides himself in
the Contemporary era" (in this last case meant as a single person).
The Movement's Prize
The Cilento International 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.
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.
The empathic ancient gods of the Stella Mountain
The Cultural Pyramid of Cilento, epicenter of the Movement, has its highest summit represented by the Star Mountain (in Italian: Monte Stella (Cilento)) with its megaliths which are considered as the empathic ancient gods of the Movement,
capable of radiating and to fertilize the territory and the World with
their light and energy. The most known megalith is called "the bastard's
stone" in the local dialect "Preta ru Mulacchio" (In Italian: "Pietra
del Bastardo") capable, according to the legend, of making women who
rubbed their bellies on it fertile.
Some exhibitions and cultural events since 2019
On the 12th of January 2019 the 'Centro Contemporaneo delle Arti' inaugurates its seat in Vallo della Lucania with Menotti Lerro reading a discourse "On the Arts" (In Italian: "Sulle Arti") written by himself and the visual artist and Professor at the Brera Academy Antonello Pelliccia. This discourse was soon perceived as "New Manifesto" by some critics, in particular from the philosopher Remo Bodei.
On the 27th of February 2019 launch of "The New Manifesto on the Arts" at the Literary Caffé Giubbe Rosse in Florence.
The native municipality of Menotti Lerro grants him honorary citizenship and put an artistic mosaic with one of his aphorisms on one of the wall of the main hall.
The Centro Contemporaneo delle Arti opens an own seat to Milan
Launch of "The New Manifesto on the Arts" at the Brera Academy of 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 Provincial 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
