A new initiative by Iscandula , the cultural association directed by Dante Olianas , which has been committed for years to researching, disseminating, and promoting Sardinian culture and history: on Saturday, October 17, in Cagliari, the conference "Remembering AFW Bentzon on the 90th Anniversary of His Birth" will take place. This intense day of study and discussion will take place at the Casa del Quartiere di Is Mirrionis , at Via Nebida 36, to reflect on the Danish anthropologist's contribution to the preservation and understanding of Sardinia's demo-ethno-anthropological heritage. It will also be an opportunity to reflect on the fate and valorization of his documentary legacy and to explore new research perspectives in continuity with his work.

Born in Gentofte, Denmark, on May 23, 1936, Andreas Fridolin Weis Bentzon first landed in Sardinia at just sixteen years old, finding the island "the theme of my life," as he announced to his family upon his return home. Trained as an anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, he made Sardinia the center of his research, conducting numerous study campaigns that allowed him to complete the first, and still unsurpassed, systematic study of the launeddas and to collect a vast corpus of ethnographic and anthropological materials of inestimable historical and sociocultural value.

The conference on Saturday the 17th will open at 9:00 am with institutional greetings from Andrea Dettori , Chief of Staff of the Regional Department of Culture, Nina Bentzon-Ehlers representing the Bentzon heirs, and Dante Olianas, president of Iscandula. At 10:00 am, moderated by Eva Garau, the scientific presentations will begin, introduced by Olianas himself, who will retrace the history of the association and the work done to keep Bentzon's legacy alive. The floor will then be given to Anne-Mette Marchen Andersen , curator of the National Museum of Denmark, who will focus on the value of the objects preserved in the museum and their ability to continue to be a living memory.

Telling stories. Following, journalist and photographer Uliano Lucas will reflect on the visual storytelling of Sardinia and the relevance of Bentzon's lesson.

After a lunch break, the conference will resume at 3:00 PM with Peter Ian Crawford, Professor Emeritus of Visual Anthropology at the Arctic University of Norway, who will frame Bentzon's legacy in the context of contemporary multimodal ethnography. Antonio Lai, of the Department of Musicology at the University of Paris 8, will present a paper titled " Beyond the Bentzonian Language : Analytical Decoding, Poietic Dialectics, and New Perspectives on the Language of the Launeddas." Ethnomusicologist Marco Lutzu, of the University of Cagliari, will focus on the methods and perspectives of Bentzon's research as a musical ethnographer. Anthropologist Umberto Cao, of the University of Aix-Marseille, will close the session with a reflection on the relevance of Andreas Fridolin Weis Bentzon's anthropological approach.

At 5:30 pm, after a coffee break, there will be a round table discussion involving speakers and the audience, offering further opportunity for discussion on Bentzon's scientific and documentary legacy.

Finally, at 8 pm, to close out the day in the main hall of the Casa del Quartiere, Bell'arrosa, sa primu discoteca de ballu sardu in su mundu , returns. This initiative, conceived by Iscandula in 1997 and subsequently successfully revived on several occasions, will feature Bruno Camedda on the accordion and Leonardo Palmas on the launeddas.

Throughout the day, a photography exhibition curated by Pietro Frau will be open in the same spaces, featuring images taken by Bentzon between 1955 and 1962. The exhibition includes seventeen black and white giant photographs (150 by 150 centimetres), accompanied by ten panels (70 by 100) in five languages, which retrace the life and work of the Danish anthropologist.

(Unioneonline)

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