ITALY 2022
INTERVIEW
ROBERTO CINCOTTA, DIRECTOR OF THE ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF BELGRADE
WE NEVER STOPPED BRINGING ITALIAN
ARTISTS TO SERBIA The Serbian public will once again have the privilege of enjoying Italian culture at in-person events organised by this Institute. Starting from the next academic year, all interested learners will be able to take Italian classes either on site or online. who don’t live in Belgrade to learn Italian,” says Cincotta.
W
e can happily say that the current programming is up to speed and back to pre-Covid levels - says Italian Cultural Institute Director Roberto Cincotta. Despite the return to in-person activities, the Institute will continue to explore online activities, as they’ve proven to be able to entice new devotees to Italian language and culture from smaller places in Serbia. Indeed, the experiences of 2020 and 2021 point to that.
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“In 2020 and 2021, the shift to online work was not followed by a decline of enrolment numbers in the Italian language courses. As a result of the pandemic, and as it has happened all over the world, teaching had to be adapted to new methods, to which our teachers adapted with great competence and flexibility. We plan to reactivate face-to-face courses starting from the next academic year, though without giving up the offer of online courses that allow students
Apart from the online presence, we see a lot of your programmes being implemented throughout Serbia. To what extent have the Institute’s activities rebounded to pre-Covid levels? We’ve resumed the organising of cultural events throughout Serbia and can happily say that the current programming is up to speed and back to pre-Covid levels. We believe it is necessary to support cultural events that take place not only in the capital and major cities, but also in the other Serbian towns that have demand for an Italian cultural offering. We hope that the pandemic will abate further, to allow for a richer and more varied programme of cultural events, confident that these will meet the public’s interests and expectations. How has the digital experience changed the way we are able to familiarise ourselves with Italian heritage and culture? The digital experience at Italian cultural events and in Italian language classes has certainly modified our public’s approach to the knowledge and fruition of Italian heritage and culture. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t forget that digital cultural experiences had started spreading even
