THE MAISON DE LA PAIX

 

 CASA UNIVERSALE DELLE CULTURE

The Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture is a place strongly representative, in which will convey the knowledge of the different identities and cultures, structuring permanently initiatives aimed at the spreading of peace, necessary for the shared development.

The Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture (MdP) is a project conceived by Michele Capasso, approved by many Countries and international organizations. It is an architecture that keeps the memory of many Peace activities which created history, often more than the wars, but it is – above all – a space "to build” Peace.

The architectonical complex has an important symbolic worth: it represents the Countries of the World engaged in the Peace process and the Countries victim of the conflicts.

Proposed by the Fondazione Mediterraneo with the “Maison des Alliances” – together with the main adherent organizations, such as the Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly, the League of Arab States, the "Anna Lindh" Euro-Mediterranean Foundation and others, the MdP represents a referent point for all the ones who dedicate their lives to peace.

The symbol of the MdP is the "Totem for Peace", an artwork by the Italian sculptor Mario Molinari which the Fondazione Mediterraneo is promoting all around the world, creating the network of the "Cities for Peace".

The first seat of the MdP was inaugurated on the 14th of June 2010 (Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture) in the historical building of the Grand Hotel de Londres in Naples.

The action of the Maison de la Paix - Casa Universale delle Culture aims at improving the main activities of the "Universal Forum of Cultures" in: Barcelona (2004), Monterrey (2007), Valparaiso (2010) and Naples (2013).

The Maison de la Paix performs most of the initiatives jointly with the Maison de la Méditerranée.

 

The FM launches a Programme of initiatives "FOR NAPLES"

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Napoli | 07 January 2011
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

The Fondazione Mediterraneo have accepted the appeal by cardinal Crescenzio Sepe for a good governance and a shared development of the city and proposes the pluri-annual Programme FOR NAPOLES in order to enhance the skills and examples of good practice, through a coordinated network action.

The President Michele Capasso – who participated at the opening torchlight for the “Jubilee for Naples 2011” – convened the International Scientific Committee, representants from other seats and delegates from other networks who accepted unanimously to participate to the pluri-annual Programme FOR NAPLES which sees the Fondazione Mediterraneo at the forefront to contribute, with ideas and concrete actions, to the rebirth, the good governance and the eco-sustainable development of the city of Naples.

Concretely the Fondazione Mediterraneo will involve its international network and the experts participating in the International Scientific Committee in order to bring in international forums the main problems that afflict the city – waste, traffic, unemployment, social unrest, new poverty and new needs, mobility, parking, promotion of culture and tourism, etc... – and get operational proposals which will be published on a special web site and, therefore, available online.

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Programme of Activities

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13 June 2010
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

The main activities of the MAISON DE LA PAIX are:

Periodical meetings of experts, persons responsible and decision makers concerned with the different thematic areas
Meetings will be held, systematically and periodically (once in a year), with the participation of the main persons responsible and decision makers concerned with the different thematic areas. This action is the first example of “harmonization” of the ongoing initiatives, which too often represent unnecessary duplications and continued waste of resources.

Annual Plenary Meeting
Once in a year, a plenary session will be held with the participation of the experts, the persons responsible and the decision- makers concerned with the different thematic areas who have participated in the different meetings per each area. This plenary meeting, which will be extended to other subjects involved, is meant to synthesize the problems of the different thematic areas so as to produce essential contributions for the redaction of the “Europe – Arab World Annual Report”.

Meeting of the “Pondering Committee”
The “Pondering Committee” established by the Fondazione Mediterraneo (made up of intellectuals, economists, artists, political decision-makers, etc.) will meet more than once in a year and its works will be object of a multi-language publication and of video interviews, both published on the web portal.

International Peace Workshops
Every year, in collaboration with partner Institutions – above all the "Anna Lindh" Euro-Mediterranean Foundation – the Maison de la Paix organizes the International Peace Workshops in order to analyze best practices and to build common paths to affirm non-violence as main element for Dialogue and Peace.

Coordination Secretariat
For the organization of the annual meetings of the representatives of the different thematic areas, of the annual plenary meeting and for all the other activities concerning the Maison de la Paix, there will be a secretariat made up of a coordinator and 8 multi-language persons.p>

Countries that offered to host the MdP

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13 June 2010
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

Among the Countries that offered to host the Maison de la Paix there are:

The Sultanate of Oman
Today, the Sultanate of Oman is one of the Countries that mainly can fuel a real dialogue and a profitable cooperation between the Arab-Islamic World and the Occident.

The Republic of Portugal
which represents the door of Europe to the Occident and to the Arab World.

The Kingdom of Morocco
with its ancient culture and traditions is one of the Country mainly able to promote Peace through intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

Functions

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13 June 2010
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

Among the main functions of the MAISON DE LA PAIX are cited:

International Peace Workshops
Every year, in collaboration with partner Institutions – above all the "Anna Lindh" Euro-Mediterranean Foundation – the Maison de la Paix organizes the International Peace Workshops in order to analyze best practices and to build common paths to affirm non-violence as main element for Dialogue and Peace.

Living the Greater Mediterranean
It is an interactive museum space which make use of modern three-dimensional technologies to narrate the history of the Mediterranean and to let “live” the cultural, archaeological and environmental resources of this region, one of the most beautiful places in the world. Doors of about ten meters high introduce in the respective main cities (Barcelona, Marseille, Marrakech, Athens, Alexandria, Algiers, Istanbul, Napoli, Valletta, Tripoli, etc. ) through a virtual trip which astonish the observer.
A trip through history, geography, traditions, religions, art crafts, mysteries, destiny...

Conference Center
Conference rooms (from 50 to 1000 seats) will be created on the first floors of the MdP allowing the carrying out of more work sessions at the same time. The rooms will be equipped with the most modern technologies and with sophisticated videoconference systems which will consent a simultaneous connection with up to 30 Countries in the world.

Multimedia
The Multimedia space will have an apposite building. Here will be created the Audiovisual Library of Peace, where the pictures about peace processes and initiatives will be collected. It also will be possible, through interactive systems on the internet, to dialogue with the Countries in conflict to promote the knowledge and the perception of peace.

Library of Peace
The Library of Peace will collect documents, books and multimedia tools concerning peace, peace processes, peace negotiation. A database which will help scholars, diplomats, men and women of the world interested in “building” peace.

School of High Education
It is a school for diplomats conceived with a new strategy established on peace and not war. Diplomats were trained on mediation concepts and on interventions aimed at the promotion of peace where there was a conflict. Now we have to invert the problem and make the diplomats “expert maintenance operators of peace”: peace is not an abstract concept, it is a dynamic and fluid process which needs daily cares, assistance and maintenance through the promotion of dialogue, exchanges and a real interaction of shared values and interests.

Exhibitions
In the MdP will be created many spaces for exhibitions. Among the permanent exhibition will be planned “A for P – Artists for Peace” which will collect artworks of artists form all 6 over the world, “Photo-Exhibitions of Peace”: pictures can change history, but today they are used in an aberrant way; it is necessary to learn “how to see” pictures. The problem is that pictures control our lives, showing only one side of the reality. We need to ask how to do new, real pictures encouraging photographers – with exhibitions and publications – to think, and then to produce, the “pictures of peace” and not only those of the war.

The Path of Peace
The Path of Peace passes through the architectonical spaces of the MdP narrating the peace processes assuring a methodology to diffuse the examples of good practice with the analysis of the results obtained along history.

The Common History
The Common History is one of the main actions of the MdP. One of the cause of conflicts is just the lack of a common history. Every People write his own history, with his winners and losers. To propose a common history of the Greater Mediterranean, an history that is not only the history of a single Country (for example Italy, Spain, Egypt, etc.), means that a “common future” established on Peace and mutual respect is possible. An example of this method has been realized in the Countries of former Yugoslavia where a team of historians wrote the common history of the Countries in conflict: Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia with absolutely positive results.

The Casket of Silence
To nourrish the inner silence as a condition for Peace will be created in the MdP a space where it will be possible to reflect, meditate and read the most important writings about peace and peace processes written through the centuries.

Bookshop
In the MdP will be created many spaces that will host bookshops of the different Countries which will distribute mainly books, multimedia products and videos having as main theme peace, dialogue and mutual respect.

Residences of Peace
In the MdP will be created residences for young men and women for young men and women born in conflict areas, to build Peace experiences.

Aims

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13 June 2010
Parent Category: Iniziative (EN) - Category: Maison de la Paix (EN)

To promote culture as a medium of access to the world, to the knowledge and to the know-how, giving to men and women the means to express their ambitions an to build a necessary dialogue for the future of peoples.

To realize activities which emphasize the contribution of the different cultures to the shared heritage and knowledge, bringing to light the potential, not yet expressed, of the exchange of experiences and diffusing knowledge of the reciprocal influences that fuelled traditions, habits and costumes of the project of a new Humanism as foundation of comprehension among Peoples.

To facilitate the cooperation among Institutions, Research Centres, Universities and organizations for the updating of knowledge and the realization of joint initiatives to contrast prejudice and to diffuse the innovations of thought and science as well as the examples of good practice connected to the new technologies applied to the sustainability of the development.

To promote studies and the activation of experiences aimed to facilitate cohabitation and interaction of people and groups with different cultural backgrounds.

To promote, systematically, information and communications about the different initiatives undertaken for the cooperation between Europe and Arab World to avoid duplications and waste of resources.