Una porta sull'infinito. Educare attraverso l'arte

The knowledge of feeling – often underestimated in Western culture – constitutes a privileged access route to self-knowledge and knowledge of others. Each person feels the world before even thinking about it, just as a work of art evokes a sensitive experience before a rational one. Not only that, but it is through the world of the senses that what can-be emerges (beyond what is). Sensitive experience, in fact, allows the gaze to open up to possible worlds: to imagine the Beyond starting from an artistic stimulus; to identify with unusual realities. In front of a work of art, sensitivity is not just passive, but intentional: it is not simply an eye that perceives, but a gaze that sees. Educating the senses, therefore, cannot be reduced to the mere presentation of 'data' (a painting, an image...), nor to a superficial yet aseptic realization of products. Educating the senses means, instead, to elevate one’s gaze – leveraging those data – to discover unusual aspects of oneself and reality. It means to broaden the view beyond what is taken for granted in order to grasp and understand – also through the exercise of reflection – what is not immediately evident. But educating the senses also means encouraging the expression of personal experiences: that is, identifying the ways – inherent to symbolic and creative language – to allow the richness of the inner world to flow, in the formation of a unique and unrepeatable artistic work that, upon closer inspection, is a continuous formation of oneself.