Referents of national and international thought meet at the Dénia Humanities Festival

Tuesday, 02 de August 2022

The central axis of the debates and reflections will revolve around what awaits us in the near future.

The mayor of Dénia, Vicent Grimalt, and the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, today attended the presentation of the "Dénia Festival of Humanities" to be held from October 27 to 29.

A project that, in the words of Grimalt, "will mark a before and after in the image and prestige of our city, because its objective is to make it a benchmark for thought, reflection and the humanities and to recover, in a certain way, the cultural splendor of that Islamic Daniya”.

For its implementation, it has academic support, materialized in the collaboration agreements signed with the UNED Dénia center and the Universities of Valencia and Alicante, in addition to other institutions, "which will make - Grimalt said - that Dénia is the center of Mediterranean thought”.

The Festival of Humanities will take place on two levels. On the one hand, the debate sessions that will be held at the end of October with the participation of national and international experts from thought, science, economics and other fields to reflect on a central theme: what awaits us in the near future?

The director of the debates is Josep Ramoneda, director of La suitcase de Portbou, whose team is in charge of coordinating the festival. Ramoneda, also present today at the presentation ceremony, explained that the ultimate goal of the Humanities Festival is "to talk, to reason together about the things that happen to us in a context like the current one, in which the world has accelerated so much that it seems that machines can do more than us, for which the first obligation is to reflect on the human condition and ask ourselves the classic questions of “who are we?”, “where do we come from?” and where do we go?".

The debate sessions have been scheduled on two stages in the city: the La Androna room in Baleària Port and the Social Center auditorium, although the objective, according to the mayor, "is to focus the next editions and activities linked to the festival on future University Center of Torrecremada, which is being rehabilitated with co-financing from the Generalitat Valenciana, and in other emblematic spaces that, also thanks to President Puig's firm commitment to our city, we will soon have available, such as the convent of Jesús Pobre” .

On the other hand, throughout the year activities related to the festival will be taking place, which was born with a vocation for continuity over time. These activities will be eminently cultural in nature and entities such as the Institute of Regional Studies of the Marina Alta (IECMA), the Chirbes Foundation and the Dénia Musical Artistic Association collaborate in their development.

The Humanities Festival is designed to be attended by university and secondary school teachers and students, but also by researchers, writers, plastic and audiovisual artists, musicians and the general public.

Cristina Sellés has represented the Dénia Creative City of Gastronomy Foundation of the Valencian Community as vice president of the entity, made up of the Dénia City Council and the private sector partners Aehtma, Baleària and the Cercle Empresarial de la Marina Alta (Cedma).

The Festival of Humanities is directly linked to Dénia's distinction as a UNESCO Creative City. The city, since it was named Creative City, works to recover its historical and cultural tradition. To achieve this, the Dénia City Council and the Dénia Creative City of Gastronomy Foundation of the Valencian Community are promoting different projects such as the Mediterranean Gastronomy Center; the future university campus of the University of Alicante in Dénia; the incorporation of new degrees in the associate center of the UNED; the agreement signed with the University of Valencia to promote municipal public governance, the presentation of our candidacy to be a City of Innovation and Science and, now, the creation and organization of the Humanities Festival.

The vice president of the Foundation and president of Aehtma has indicated that "the organization of the festival is an opportunity to turn Dénia into the epicenter of thought and from the business side of the foundation we have believed that events like this must be promoted together with public collaboration" .

The president of Baleària, Adolfo Utor, for his part, referred to the Lluís Vives Space, a part of the program of debates focused on the humanities and business, and expressed his conviction of the "value of the humanities and their incorporation into the business". In line with what the mayor has stated, Adolfo Utor also believes that making Dénia "the capital of thought is going back to the 11th century of Daniya", a splendid time in which Dénia achieved prestige that with initiatives such as this Festival of the Humanities “we are going to try to recover and remember”.

Finally, President Puig has highlighted that the Dénia Humanities Festival "constitutes a space for thought, reflection and dialogue between cultures and different ways of seeing the world", as well as an exercise of great importance to strengthen democracy, since it has been shown that advances in rights and freedoms are "reversible" and it is necessary to fight permanently to consolidate them.

The president has also stressed that the initiative will have a positive economic, social and cultural impact, both in Dénia and the Marina Alta and in the Valencian Community as a whole.