10.6092/issn.1973-9494/12807
"Ci troviamo non solo in un'epoca di cambiamento, ma in un cambiamento d'epoca" per dirla con Papa Francesco. E in questo nuovo mondo pieno di nuove sfide, anche difficili da comprendere, l'evento pandemico ci ha impedito contatti diretti e indiretti, la condivisione, l'alterità.
E nell'arte, noto strumento introspettivo per esplorare l'anima e il corpo, quali sono le risposte e le reazioni anche nella considerazione del presente momento pandemico drammatico e perdurante? Ed ancora: la fede può offrire una prospettiva nuova in un mondo in cui le principali progettualità sociali si sono rivelate inadeguate? Ci si riferisce a quella stessa fede da cui promana l'esigenza di sviluppare la ricerca, in ogni sua forma e livello, a partire da quella scientifica, come servizio per prevenire e investire nella "costruzione".
application/pdf
1973-9494
12807
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Lucio Colizzi
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage
art
Virus, Art and Faith: How to Respond to Covid-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019)
Text.Serial.Journal
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/
20
Articles
2021-05-13
2021-04-27
2021-05-13
2021-05-13
309-326
CSCH
Lucio Colizzi
2020
10.6092/issn.1973-9494/12807
309
Computer Science Department, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy
1973-9494
art
en
326
Virus, Art and Faith: How to Respond to Covid-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019)
https://conservation-science.unibo.it/article/download/12807/12524
20
V    IRUS, ART AND FAITH: HOW TO RESPOND TO COVID-19
     (CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019)

   Salvatore Lorusso*
   Foreign Member Russian Academy of Natural Sciences

   Mauro Mantovani
   Rector of the Salesian Pontifical University, Rome, Italy

   Lucio Colizzi
   Computer Science Department
   University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy


   Keywords: pandemic, Covid-19, art



   1. Virus

    We are experiencing profound changes which, at times, make us feel disoriented.
Pope Francis has long remembered – one need only think of a speech he made in
Florence on 10 November 2015 – that “today we are not living an epoch of change so
much as an epochal change. The situations that we are living in today therefore pose
new challenges which, at times, are also difficult for us to understand. Our time requires
us to live problems as challenges and not as obstacles: the Lord is active and at work
in the world” [1].
    The expression “epochal change” is not a slogan, but rather expresses a category
of particular significance which indicates the profound and irreversible transformation
of our present society and of our experience, a crucial theme that has yet to be explored
in detail and which crosses the same “evangelical” path of Christianity in the contem-
porary world, assigning it a true historical diakonia.
    Even five hundred years ago, while the Renaissance was flourishing, the Ferrara
friar Savonarola thundered and, with his populist demands, prophesied misfortunes
angrily preaching a theocratic model that avoided “earthly vanities”: this was how he
comforted a disoriented humanity. Consequently, it can be noted that whereas there
were initially non-practising believers who then became practising believers, they were
later not only joined by practising non-believers, but also by those who neither believed
nor practised any faith. The secular antidote to populism could be a supportive form of
empathy, considering, as in the case of Covid-19, on the one hand, those who want to
ignore the virus by launching messages using force and on the other, those who have
caringly and actively participated in anti-contagion issues with dedication and self-sacri-
ficThe virus, the enemy of direct and indirect contact and, therefore, of sharing things,
has hit the sharing economy hard, putting a stop to a race that seemed irreversible.
What we need today is a completely different kind of sharing because, despite the con-


   * Corresponding author: salvatore.lorusso@unibo.it
                                                                                                                     tinuing pandemic, people are seeing each other again. People communicate because
                                                                                                                     they look into each other’s eyes, not just to exchange information: by staring and look-
                                                                                                                     ing you are accepting to be stared and looked at. Communication is offering ourselves
                                                                                                                     to each other: our personal identity is a starting point, but without alterity it goes un-
                                                                                                                     heeded. If alterity is not recognised, it is not only the other person who dies, but also
                                                                                                                     the person themselves.
S. Lorusso, M. Mantovani, L. Colizzi - Virus, art and faith: how to respond to covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019)




                                                                                                                          The important thing, however, is that for this recognition to be complete, it must be
                                                                                                                     open to recognising the other’s freedom. Pope Francis in Florence continued by say-
                                                                                                                     ing: “I also advise that you have, in a special way, the capacity to dialogue and encoun-
                                                                                                                     ter. Dialogue is not negotiating. Negotiation is trying to obtain one’s ‘slice’ of the com-
                                                                                                                     mon pie. This is not what I mean. It is seeking the common good for all. Discussing
                                                                                                                     together, I would dare say getting angry together, thinking about better solutions for all.
                                                                                                                     Many times, the encounter involves conflict. Dialogue is always given to conflict: thus,
                                                                                                                     it is logical and predictable. We must neither fear it nor ignore it but accept it. ‘It is the
                                                                                                                     willingness to face conflict head on, to resolve it and to make it a link in the chain of a
                                                                                                                     new process’”.


                                                                                                                        2. Art

                                                                                                                         The question arises: during this pandemic can art and, in particular painting, rightly
                                                                                                                     represent an open window on the visible and the invisible?
                                                                                                                         Over the centuries, art has become an introspective tool for exploring man’s soul
                                                                                                                     and body, but it has also represented a means for questioning nature, thought of as an
                                                                                                                     affective territory, a surface on which to project worries, anxieties and absolute ques-
                                                                                                                     tions, on the threshold between reason and tragedy.
                                                                                                                         There are different moments on this temporal voyage and equally different artistic
                                                                                                                     movements, conceptions and expressions that narrate the personal events of the art-
                                                                                                                     ists themselves. They are, nevertheless, also affected by the events of the time, the
                                                                                                                     works themselves communicating their meaning. As a means of information, documen-
                                                                                                                     tation and distribution of images they consequently determine the most diverse reac-
                                                                                                                     tions and responses [2-5]. It is however true that, during the current drama and persis-
                                                                                                                     tence of the pandemic situation, there has been a natural difficulty in representing in
                                                                                                                     pictures what is happening, i.e. facts and sensations linked to the suffering, compassion,
                                                                                                                     strong emotions, sentiments: this is not dictated by the artists’ indifference or reticence,
                                                                                                                     but by the need not to indulge in pain, much less exalt it.
                                                                                                                         This is what the art historian and critic Vincenzo Trione highlights in an article [6] in
                                                                                                                     which he reports on data taken from Instagram regarding several important contempo-
                                                                                                                     rary artists. There is on their part a choral response whose testimony in this period of
                                                                                                                     lockdown manifests itself in silence, in an inability to visually represent what is irrefut-
                                                                                                                     ably and painfully happening after the outbreak and spread of the virus which contin-
                                                                                                                     ues to involve and distress the entire world.
                                                                                                                         A different response comes from some of today’s leading street artists. One such
                                                                                                                     example is the British Banksy, a major exponent of the art, who has produced some
                                                                                                                     pandemic-inspired artwork to express different aspects of the current coronavirus situ-
                                                                                                                     ation. His works often have a satirical background and in general concern topics such
                                                                                                                     as culture and politics as well as contemporary social problems: from the prevailing
                                                                                                                     excess of electronic devices to the negative effects of mass tourism on cultural and
                                                                                                                     environmental heritage, from the denouncing of marginalization and poverty to the


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equally dominant phenomena of globalization and standardisation. Trione points out
that Banksy “uses playful but, at the same time, perturbing images full of references to
Pop Art, graffiti and cartoons to address highly topical themes”.
     There are responses from other artists as well, similar to Banksy’s but expressed
as poetic and political choices. Jenny Holzer, a neo-conceptual American artist, is one
such example, with her videos in which there are messages such as “we want to live”,
that are much more expressive than a poetic manifesto.
     There are, however, a limited number of artists who express their work in various ways
to refer to the pandemic and its direct protagonists (doctors, nurses, health workers),
with press reports, photographs, videos and commentary describing the event, highlight-
ing a vision of hope, with footage of landscapes and beaches that reveal glimpses of
light, clarity and serenity amidst the pain, despair and torment.
     Besides Trione’s extensive description of the artistic testimonies relating to the virus,
of which a brief summary has been reported, it is equally true that, during this period of
solitude which has been imposed on everyone as a fundamental remedy to the hidden
dangers of the virus, there is also free unlimited space for reconsideration and reflec-
tion, therefore for detachment as well as moments of intimacy or of great impact, motifs
that prove to be quite creative.
     Among the various depictions, it is worth mentioning the work of TVBoy, the pseud-
onym of Salvatore Benintende, an exponent of the NeoPop movement and, in particu-
lar, one of his best-known pieces “L’amore ai tempi del Covid-19”. The work was in-
spired by the famous painting “The kiss” by Francesco Hayez (considered first and
foremost a classic artist, as well as a romantic one), in which two lovers exchange ef-
fusions wearing a mask and holding a bottle of hand sanitizer.
     But there are also those who share in the pain and tragedy of those who have lost
their loved ones without even being able to say goodbye to them, underlining the dedica-
tion and heroic nature of the health workers who have tirelessly followed and cured the
infected.
     In this sense, the artwork by the cartoonist Gianluca Costantini is significant. His




                                                                                                   Conservation science in Cultural Heritage
drawings depict the profound affliction of the families of the sick, as well as rows of
coffins and exhausted doctors: scenes which aim to “create pictures that are able to
create memories”.
     In this brief overview of responses to the pandemic situation and the consequent
repercussions involving not only human but also psychological aspects of behavioural
instability, uncertainty and fear, there are also messages of positivity that refer to inspi-
ration, beauty, creativity. There are, in this regard, various projects and plans, but there
is also a revisitation of famous masterpieces that symbolically give rise to a strong
impact and an engaging message directed toward “flattening the curve of contagion”.
     This is for example the campaign on the coronavirus emergency launched by the
Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine [7]. It uses several works of art,
including Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam”, from the Sistine Chapel, in which the
two hands exchange a bottle of disinfectant and “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da
Vinci with Jesus sitting alone and wearing a mask. In our opinion, this is both question-
able and objectionable from several points of view. However, to fully examine the re-
sponses resulting from the states, conditions and situations caused by this unknown
and invisible and, at the same time, lethal virus, we would like to aseptically present
some rich and varied records, which reflect – as was said at the beginning – impulses,
sensations, palpitations, mental spaces, pain and drama, not with the detachment that
art sometimes expresses, but with the involvement and closeness that are typical of art
in the widest sense of the word.


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                                                                                                                          Until now we have focused on the message that artists have conveyed to the world
                                                                                                                     during the spread of Covid-19, but we should also think about how the world has en-
                                                                                                                     gaged with art in the same period, where personal and social liberties have been re-
                                                                                                                     stricted and have even become physical barriers that we have to deal with. The rea-
                                                                                                                     sonable question is obviously a much debated one: “Can the virtual world effectively
                                                                                                                     be a useful tool to help us draw closer to the real one or perhaps even replace it?”
S. Lorusso, M. Mantovani, L. Colizzi - Virus, art and faith: how to respond to covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019)




                                                                                                                     Unfortunately, the virtual and the real worlds are neither two-way nor complementary,
                                                                                                                     especially when it comes to art. The former is based on a short rapid experience in
                                                                                                                     which interactivity and timing are anachronistic compared to the personal and intro-
                                                                                                                     spective face-to-face experience of the latter. But the fact is that during the pandemic
                                                                                                                     situation a great deal has been and continues to be invested to develop virtual tech-
                                                                                                                     nologies, often integrating them into social media and presenting innovative function-
                                                                                                                     alities, especially in terms of digitalization for multisensory enjoyment [8]. In a recent
                                                                                                                     interview, the art historian, Philippe Daverio, stated that the right modus operandi to
                                                                                                                     visit a museum was to contemplate a single art work at a time and to return to the mu-
                                                                                                                     seum to contemplate a different art work each time. Seen from this perspective, it is
                                                                                                                     easy to see that dematerialisation and digitisation technologies can never replace the
                                                                                                                     emotions conveyed by art works in their physicality, but they can certainly be a valid
                                                                                                                     support at a time when physical places are out of bounds because they may be places
                                                                                                                     of contagion.


                                                                                                                        3. Faith

                                                                                                                          A question naturally arises when talking and hoping for a “return to normality”: “Is
                                                                                                                     the “normality” that we are necessarily leaving behind – because nothing will be the
                                                                                                                     same as before – really what we have to hope for or is it actually one of the causes
                                                                                                                     behind the problems we are experiencing?” It doesn’t necessarily mean we are auto-
                                                                                                                     matically going to emerge from this difficult time stronger and better; what is certain,
                                                                                                                     however, in a context strongly marked by an individualist anthropology and ethics, is
                                                                                                                     that the future of the pandemic will be choosing how to be: if we are only looking for
                                                                                                                     personal prosperity, then there will be an even more unequal and impoverished world
                                                                                                                     or, if we are capable of considering the good of all people – believers and non-believ-
                                                                                                                     ers alike – then this will be acting with humanity and a sense of responsibility, in order
                                                                                                                     to care for, accompany and help those who are more fragile, through those works of
                                                                                                                     mercy inspired by the message of the Gospel.
                                                                                                                          At the crossroads before us, between “I” and “we” – given that the “difficult times”
                                                                                                                     we have experienced have highlighted on the one hand, the fragility of the human be-
                                                                                                                     ing, and on the other, how deeply united and interconnected we are – choices need to
                                                                                                                     be redirected to courageously develop and implement programmes that can lay the
                                                                                                                     foundations for the sustainability of our planet, the growth and sharing of knowledge,
                                                                                                                     and social and generational equity.
                                                                                                                          We have realised we need to treasure the value of “networking” and “teamworking”
                                                                                                                     even more by exchanging different skills and competences and integrating them ef-
                                                                                                                     fectively. It is no coincidence that three Italian university rectors, in an interview entitled
                                                                                                                     “The challenge of innovation in post-crisis universities”, stressed that it is precisely the
                                                                                                                     dynamics of strong interdisciplinarity that is “fundamental in finding a solution to such
                                                                                                                     a complex issue as the current pandemic. [...]. The wealth represented by the range
                                                                                                                     of multidisciplinary skills available is of crucial importance in the difficult times ahead.
                                                                                                                     A change of mentality is needed” [9].


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     It can be argued that an experience of faith may be able to provide a “breath of
fresh air” in all this and help to look ahead with realism and well-founded hope. Hence,
it is possible to set out on a new path. With the drama of the pandemic, however, a
problem which was becoming increasingly more evident even before Covid-19, has
resurfaced: “How can you build a new social reality in such a way as to guarantee ev-
eryone the possibility of living their historical existence to the full?” If thinking of elimi-
nating the disease is a true utopia, turning back the hands of history means acknowl-
edging the greatest defeat of contemporary man. This is the great challenge for the
post-coronavirus era” [10].
     As a resource, faith can therefore offer a new perspective in a world where social
planning has proved inadequate. In addressing this new historical question, Christian-
ity, which is not only a simple religious or social message, is itself a “historical reality” and
can lay the foundations on which to build a post-pandemic society to foster a truly
epochal change.


    4. Faith, knowledge and research

     “Fides quarens intellectum et affectum”, wrote Anselmo d’Aosta in his Orationes.
     From an existence that is open to faith comes the need to develop research in all
its forms and at all levels, starting from scientific research, understood as a service for
the protection and development of “construction”: knowledge needs a community that
is open to totality and not simply to specialization. This is what is experienced at Uni-
versity, in particular, thanks to the fact that, despite the many specialisations, you are
part of a “whole” (uni-versitas) and you work inside the “wholeness” of one cause, with
its various dimensions and common responsibility to use it correctly. Discovering “this
great logos”, this breadth of reason is “the essential task of the University”. In this
sense, “Christian thinking”, as the theologian A. Bozzolo affirms, “if it is such, cannot




                                                                                                        Conservation science in Cultural Heritage
withdraw into itself, on the contrary, it is radically ‘responsorial’: the stricter it is, the less
it seeks to impose itself on its own ‘object’” [11].
     Hence, faith upsets the idea of academic or cultural institutions understood as an-
archic citadels of specializations in which the formal equivalence of all admitted knowl-
edge translates into self-referentiality and unquestionable subjectivism. We all know
there is a difference between specialisation and fragmentation: specialisation is neces-
sary for the development of knowledge and human growth and is unavoidable due to
man’s very own limitations; fragmentation, on the contrary, is harmful, its negative ef-
fects are evident and cannot be ignored, because even if an increasingly abundant and
redundant multiplicity of data and knowledge is given, it never achieves a unitary vision,
so the meaning of knowledge and what is real is eventually lost, including the very mean-
ing of existence itself.
     “Making science” and “making culture” in this perspective of faith, besides reveal-
ing their “informative”, as well as “formative” and “performative” dimension which, in no
way diminishes the value of the different forms of knowledge, on the contrary, support
and establish specific and irreplaceable contributions, providing an authentic relational
and cross-disciplinary context.
     It is not surprising that Pope Francis in the important Proem of the Apostolic Con-
stitution, “Veritatis gaudium (The joy of truth)”, wished to suggest, even in choosing the
title, the possibility of rediscovering the relationship with truth in the form of an “encoun-
ter” which is a source of joy and fraternity.


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                                                                                                                          All this starts from the initial statement in which “the joy of truth [...] expresses the
                                                                                                                     restlessness of the human heart until it encounters and dwells within God’s Light and
                                                                                                                     shares that Light with all people. For truth is not an abstract idea, but is Jesus himself,
                                                                                                                     the Word of God in whom is the Life that is the Light of man”. Everyone has been in-
                                                                                                                     vited – and this is important now during the pandemic but will be even more so, hope-
                                                                                                                     fully soon, when the pandemic ends – to design “outstanding interdisciplinary centres
S. Lorusso, M. Mantovani, L. Colizzi - Virus, art and faith: how to respond to covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019)




                                                                                                                     and initiatives aimed at accompanying the development of advanced technologies, the
                                                                                                                     best use of human resources and programmes of integration”, to set up “specialized
                                                                                                                     centers capable of deeper dialogue with the different scientific fields” and practice
                                                                                                                     “shared and converging research between specialists of different disciplines”, to study
                                                                                                                     “the epochal issues affecting humanity today and to offer appropriate and realistic
                                                                                                                     paths for their resolution”. Within these “cultural laboratories”[…]”scholars from differ-
                                                                                                                     ent religions and from different scientific fields can interact with responsible freedom
                                                                                                                     and mutual transparency, thus entering into ‘dialogue among themselves for the sake
                                                                                                                     of protecting nature, defending the poor, and building networks of respect and frater-
                                                                                                                     nity’” [12].


                                                                                                                        5. Conclusions

                                                                                                                          We would like to conclude with an excerpt from the editorial of issue N.20 of the
                                                                                                                     Journal “Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage”, which refers to “Culture unites”.
                                                                                                                          “Culture unites” may be intended as a collective call in times of need: in truth, it
                                                                                                                     refers to a project whose aims and objectives are the protection and enhancement
                                                                                                                     of the immense and prestigious heritage of historical-artistic, as well as architectur-
                                                                                                                     al-monumental, archaeological, archival-library, musical interest in Italy and other
                                                                                                                     countries.
                                                                                                                          It is a voice that calls for a commitment to the value of culture, as a tool that allows
                                                                                                                     informed, reasoned and reasonable choices to be made, but are also constructive
                                                                                                                     choices for the future of the new generations who are experiencing this “pandemic
                                                                                                                     emergency”, which is also an “educational emergency”. That means thinking of educa-
                                                                                                                     tion not only in terms of teaching (tuition), but also learning (training), acquiring experi-
                                                                                                                     ence and improving skills through practice and everyday life, in view of a human flour-
                                                                                                                     ishing of the person as an individual and as the living cell of a community.
                                                                                                                          Five years after its publication, “Laudato si’” continues to provoke us, especially in
                                                                                                                     the light of everything that has happened, when in no.215 it invites us not to neglect the
                                                                                                                     relationship between adequate aesthetic education and the maintenance of a healthy
                                                                                                                     environment. “If someone has not learned to stop and admire something beautiful, we
                                                                                                                     should not be surprised if he or she treats everything as an object to be used and abused
                                                                                                                     without scruple. If we want to bring about deep change, we need to realize that certain
                                                                                                                     mindsets really do influence our behaviour. Our efforts at education will be inadequate
                                                                                                                     and ineffectual unless we strive to promote a new way of thinking about human beings,
                                                                                                                     life, society and our relationship with nature” [13].
                                                                                                                          It is affirmed in this special year dedicated to “Laudato si’”, and immediately after the
                                                                                                                     publication of the Encyclical Letter “Fratelli tutti” (Assisi, 3 October 2020) on fraternity
                                                                                                                     and social friendship.
                                                                                                                          A “great brotherhood” seems to be today the most suitable solution to the drama of
                                                                                                                     the loneliness of man – consumer and spectator – closed within his individualism and
                                                                                                                     passivity; it saves time in politics, mediation, meetings, building civil society and care.


                                                                                      314
    The tragedy of the pandemic has increased the awareness of being a world com-
munity in which the evil of one, is to the detriment of all. No one saves themselves
alone: we can only save ourselves together [14].
    Faith, art and culture either accompany each other and “converse with each other”,
or they are inexorably impoverished: this is why we read in “Fratelli tutti”, “A country
flourishes when constructive dialogue occurs between its many rich cultural compo-
nents: popular culture, university culture, youth culture, artistic culture, technological
culture, economic culture, family culture and media culture”.
    An engaging proposal which is, nevertheless, a plausible response, as well as guid-
ance for this period in time, characterised by unprecedented challenges and profound
changes.


      References

[1]    Francesco (2015), Incontro con i rappresentanti del V Convegno Nazionale della
       Chiesa italiana, Firenze, 10 novembre 2015.
[2]    Lorusso, S., Matteucci, C., Natali, A., Tumidei S. (2009), Materia e segni della
       storia sostanzialmente e formalmente uniti: alcuni casi di studio. In: Scienza e
       patrimonio culturale nel mediterraneo. Diagnostica e conservazione, esperienze
       e proposte per una carta del rischio. Atti del III convegno internazionale di studi
       “La materia e i segni della storia”, Palermo, 18-21 ottobre 2007, Palermo, Priulla
       s.r.l., 295-303.
[3]    Lorusso, S., Matteucci, C., Natali, A., Apicella, S., (2013) Traditional and non-
       traditional, innovative and ephemeral materials and techniques in today’s cul-
       tural heritage, Russian Chemical Bulletin, International Edition, Vol. 62, N. 7,
       pp. 1671-1681, July 2013 ISSN: 1066-5285 (Print) 1573-9171 (Online) [4] Lorusso,
       S., Natali, A., (2015) Promozione e conservazione dei beni culturali, in Pensie-




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       ri nascosti nelle cose. Arte, Cultura e Tecnica, a cura di Lombardi G. e Manto-
       vani M., LAS (Libreria Ateneo Salesiano) - Angelicum University Press, Roma,
       pp. 352-373.
[5]    Lorusso, S., Natali, A., (2017) Drawing Value from Culture and the Territory, Ath-
       ens: ATINER’S Conference Paper Series, No: CUL2016-2185. Printed in Athens,
       Greece by the Athens Institute for Education and Research. ISSN: 2241-2891.
[6]    Trione, V., (2020) Quanto è social (e democratico) l’artista contemporaneo. La
       lettura, Corriere della Sera.
[7]    Hashtag, (2020) # ArtofQuarantine e # FlattentheCurve, Così il Ministero della
       Cultura ucraino trasforma le opera d’arte.
[8]    Lorusso, S., Colizzi, L. (2018) Design Between Art, Technologies and Science.
       Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage, 18.1: pp. 211-221.
[9]    Franzini, E., Iannantuoni, G., Svelto, F. (2020), La sfida dell’innovazione negli
       atenei del dopo-crisi. In Corriere della Sera, 07/05/2020, p. 28.
[10]   Leuzzi, L. (2020), Il mondo soffre per mancanza di pensiero. Da Paolo VI a Fran-
       cesco, Palumbi, Teramo, p. 41.
[11]   Bozzolo, A. (2019), Trasformazione missionaria e rinnovamento degli studi nel
       Proemio di Veritatis gaudium. Salesianum 81.1: p. 50.
[12]   Francesco (2017), Veritatis gaudium, Città del Vaticano, 07/12/2019.
[13]   Francesco (2015), Laudato si’, Città del Vaticano, 24/05/2015.
[14]   Francesco (2020), Fratelli tutti, Assisi, 03/10/2020.


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                                                                                                                        Biographical notes

                                                                                                                          Salvatore Lorusso is a former full Professor of the University of Bologna. He is a
                                                                                                                     Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences; Emeritus Professor of
                                                                                                                     the Cultural Heritage Institute of Zhejiang University, China; former Visiting Professor of
                                                                                                                     the Academy of Social Science of Zhejiang University, China; Visiting Professor of the
S. Lorusso, M. Mantovani, L. Colizzi - Virus, art and faith: how to respond to covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019)




                                                                                                                     Faculty of Arts, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia; former Vice-president
                                                                                                                     and now, a Councilor of the Società Italiana per il Progresso delle Scienze (SIPS-estab­
                                                                                                                     lished in 1839) and Direttore Generale of the Accademia della Cultura Enogastronomi-
                                                                                                                     ca. His biography appears in the 2016 Marquis Edition of Who’s Who in the World. He
                                                                                                                     is the founder and director of two book series relating to specific issues pertaining to the
                                                                                                                     sector of cultural and environmental heritage. He is the author of over 430 publica­tions
                                                                                                                     in national and international journals and of 22 volumes and monographs cover­ing com-
                                                                                                                     modity science, cultural heritage and environment. In 1997, he founded the Diagnostic
                                                                                                                     Laboratory for Cultural Heritage at the Ravenna Campus of the University of Bologna
                                                                                                                     and remained head of the Laboratory for eighteen years. In 2001, he founded, and is
                                                                                                                     Editor-in-Chief of the historical-technical Journal “Conservation Science in Cul­tural Her-
                                                                                                                     itage”. His scientific work deals mainly with the study of the “system-artifact-environ-
                                                                                                                     ment-biota” and diagnostic, analytical, technical and economic evaluation within the
                                                                                                                     context of the protection and valorization of cultural and environmental heritage.

                                                                                                                         Mauro Mantovani, born in Moncalieri (Turin - Italy), in 1966, is a Salesian Priest and
                                                                                                                     currently Rector of the Pontifical Salesian University (UPS), Rome, where he is Profes-
                                                                                                                     sor in Theoretical Philosophy. He is a Doctor in Philosophy at the Pontifical University of
                                                                                                                     Salamanca (Spain, 2006), and a Doctor in Theology at the Pontifical University “San
                                                                                                                     Tommaso d’Aquino” Angelicum, Rome (Italy, 2010) and teaches Philosophical Theolo-
                                                                                                                     gy, Philosophy of History and Philosophical Propaedeutic, while his most recent studies
                                                                                                                     and publications focus on the history of Thomism and on the fine line between Philoso-
                                                                                                                     phy, Theology and Science. Since November 2016 he has been President of the Con-
                                                                                                                     ference of Rectors of the Pontifical Roman Universities and Institutions (CRUIPRO).

                                                                                                                         Lucio Colizzi, graduated in Computer Engineering from the University of Salento,
                                                                                                                     Italy. He has worked in the private sector for the company Infobyte Spa in the field of
                                                                                                                     design and development of virtual reality applications. In 2001 he became Director of
                                                                                                                     the Computer Engineering Division of CETMA (European Research Centre for Tech-
                                                                                                                     nology, Design and Materials) where he was the scientific coordinator of several major
                                                                                                                     industrial research projects. He is currently the CEO of the innovative startup Smart-
                                                                                                                     EducationLab, a CETMA spin-off company operating in the fields of digital manufactur-
                                                                                                                     ing, IoT and process digitisation and simulation.
                                                                                                                         He is the author of a European patent in the field of mechatronics and several sci-
                                                                                                                     entific publications. His areas of expertise focus on the development of ICT technolo-
                                                                                                                     gies in industry 4.0, cultural heritage and healthcare IT. He teaches digital supply chain
                                                                                                                     at the “Istituto Tecnico Superiore della Logistica Puglia”. He is currently doing his Phd
                                                                                                                     at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Bari, Italy.


                                                                                                                        Summary

                                                                                                                        “We are not living an epoch of change so much as an epochal change”, to quote Pope
                                                                                                                     Francis. And in this new world full of new challenges, difficult to understand, the pandemic
                                                                                                                     has prevented us from having direct and indirect contact, from sharing, from alterity.


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    And in art, a well-known introspective tool for exploring the soul and the body, what
are the responses and reactions in considering the present dramatic and lasting pan-
demic moment? And can faith offer a new perspective in a world where the main social
projects have proved inadequate? That is to say the same faith from which the need to
develop research, in all its forms and levels, starting with scientific research, as a ser-
vice and as a way to invest in “construction”.




                                                                                                Conservation science in Cultural Heritage




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