In the war that has been going on for two months now in hospitals and research laboratories across the country and around the world over fighting the Coronavirusthere is also another battle that holds sway. It is the one in defence of the beautythe only yardstick by which to measure a humanity that is now relegated to the confines of the home, at the risk of being dangerously and dramatically deprived of a lifeblood that is vital and that has made it possible for civilisation to perpetrate, renew and rethink itself.
While the images captured by drones of a country at its most extraordinarily beautiful, that of desolate squares, deserted alleyways, closed churches and castles, under skies of infinite melancholy, will remain in everyone's memory, as nature reclaims its space, with the coastal sea becoming clearer and brighter, blades of grass sprouting on paved squares no longer trodden by man, and animals approaching the empty cities serenely, inside, the desire to start again and recreate continues to paw.
Here then, art explodes in homes, between artists from around the world ready to translate their pain, frustration and fear into extraordinary works spanning painting, sculpture, writing, photography and, why not, even Design.
And we are already thinking about the return, how everything will change, how this confinement will affect our shopping, our habits, the way we get together, the way we inhabit spaces.
Everything will pick up right where it left off, from that Milan, world capital of designan expression of many minds and souls that have dictated trends on the planet. An energetic, dynamic Milan, which is now standing still, only in its legs, but inside is exploding with new ideas and new goals, a Milan that does not want to give up and will be reborn as a phoenix to soar into the sky with a new great momentum.
An entire country wants it, the economy wants it, the artists and the Italians themselves want it.
Because art cannot stop, because life itself cannot stop, it always overcomes everything and finds, like a liquid unravelling its fluid arms, its spaces and dimensions.
Because we are not just bodies that feed on food, we are social animals that need to elevate our souls.
Because yes, it is true that the beauty will save the world.
