Eventful days in Matera, all throughout the province as well as the rest of the Region. Verri: “Sold out everywhere. There is a hunger for participation "

Over 2 thousand people participated in the three day "The Poetics of Prime Numbers" project between Metaponto and Matera . Roberto Vecchioni's concert at the “Cava del Sole” sold out completely as did that of the “Duni” Conservatoire Orchestra, the following night. Both were supported and organized by the Matera Basilicata 2019 Foundation. Total: 5 thousand spectators. Moreover: the minibasket in the square, strongly supported by the Foundation, as well as the continuation of the program "Capital for a day" in small towns and villages around Basilicata (such as Pignola, Missanello, Colobraro, Filiano). Also: on the same weekend, sold out the “art walks” from the “Matera Alberga” project, the community workshop "A work of the master craftsmen of the chariot for the Silent Academy", the projects for communities carried out in Genzano di Lucania and Montescaglioso, the open-air workshops with citizens for "Inhabiting the Opera". And again the dance performances from the project "Petrolio" and the stages of the Matera2019 project called "Mamma miaaa". Lastly, the ongoing exhibitions.

All of this not over the span of a year or a month, but just a single outstanding weekend where some 30 thousand citizens took part in all the events supported or directly organized by the Matera Basilicata 2019 Foundation.
"The weekend has opened the curtain on the summer season and countless events that will welcome a wider audience” - eagerly said Paolo Verri, general manager of the Foundation. “Suffice it to say that in one single evening, for the concert of the Beethoven's Ninth at the Cava del Sole and the meetings at the archaeological park, we involved about 4 thousand people. But the most interesting aspect to stress is that from January 19th, every event organized by Matera 2019, whether it was a concert or a conference, was sold-out. This is the clearest sign that we are paving the way to success, bringing our activities into the hands of those who never before had the chance to live through such an experience. Seeing happy-looking gazes at the end of a concert at the “Cava del Sole” or at the lecture by Piero Angela, is the best encouragement we can have.”

Great interest, in particular, has been shown throughout the three days of "The poetics of prime numbers" held between Metaponto and Matera. In the amphitheater of the archaeological area of Metaponto, some 1,500 people watched silently the performance by David Riondino and Valeria Solarino based on a text by Piergiorgio Odifreddi. The two actors have interpreted, respectively, Pythagoras and Hypatia with musical interludes by the pianist Alessandra Celletti.
"It was such an elating experience - said Riondino – playing the role as Pythagoras in this land. In this event you have hosted top-class scientific experts and I am very pleaced to have been part of this journey ".
Greeted like a real star, Piero Angela held a biographical lecture for about an hour. "This is an extraordinary place. Today science is the key to the future. And science is the key to linking research to culture ", said Angela, who focused on the issues of communication, birth rate and aging. "We must have a glance at the past, but also at the future. Matera 2019 seems to me to hold these two aspects together ".

The long night continued with an outstanding lesson by Guido Tonelli. Accompanied by the cellist Eleuteria Arena, he explained very clearly the origins of stars. At dawn, a delightful concert was performed by the pianist Alessandra Celletti, who proposed her latest album produced in vinyl #cellettiblue, inspired by Pythagorean numbers.
The great heat did not prevent the public from flocking to see the artistic side of the event as “Acito Palace”, one of the many jewels of Matera heritage, has reopened last Sunday. The newly reopened palace hosts three exhibitions. The vernissage was preceded by a talk-show conducted by the artistic director Piergiorgio Odifreddi. The authors illustrated the various ways in which they describe their personal equation between mathematics and art.
Ugo Nespolo recalled the long friendship with Odifreddi as well as their common research that led him to Shanghai and Geneva. At the same time he affirmed the essentially rational nature of artistic creation and challenged the intellectualist exasperations of the conceptual season. His 'Numbers' reveal the reference to avant-garde currents that treated signs as an object: from the futurism to pop art.
The "computer art" of Aldo Spizzichino, CNR (National Research Council) astrophysicist, who died in 2017, was presented by his son, a 3D graphic designer, who assisted him in the post-production over the last 20 years. His creative work, which began well before the widespread use of PCs, consisted of programming in machine language to translate mathematical structures on an aesthetic level. With no computer graphics programs.

Disciple of Eco, Tobia Rava has graduated with a thesis in semiology of art. Drawing on the roots of his Jewish culture, since the 1990s he has began in-depth research into the mathematical path that underlies the language. He has adopted a powerful tool: the gematria, a system for interpreting the biblical text through a path of equations. His "Elements of transcendental calculation" seek to interpret and represent words through other words having the same numerical value.
All 5 exhibitions of "The Poetics of Prime Numbers" are co-produced with the “Polo Museale della Basilicata” (the regional network of Basilcata museums) and will remain open until November 30.
The Auditorium of the University of Basilicata was crowded as Emeritus Professor Ian Stewart gave lecture on "Prime numbers and their applications". Before the audience the Nobel Prize for Literature, John Maxwell Coetzee, spoke of “mathematical adventures” interspersed with translations read by Piergiorgio Odifreddi.