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The Art of Slow Living Only one year after its establishment, The Art of Slow Living (L'Arte del Vivere con Lentezza) has long enlarged its range of activities. We started with a bunch of friends, with the desire of finding the right timing for our lives and share our paths with other people. We pioneer not only the way of tranquility, the time for rest, the time for work and for the family, but also how to have time for ourselves. After little initiatives such as lectures, cooking, slow walks, we came with the Global Day of Slowness. Ironically, the idea of making people aware of the meaning of slowness it appear to have a bomb effect; a lot of people have join and a lot of activities have been in place since February 19th , 2007.
The spontaneous behavior of the people that join that day make us aware of how important this topic is and how strong the need to regain our balanced rhythm. Moreover is important to underline that the meaning of is not inactivity, but behave without hurry and rest whenever possible to be ready and productive when needed. Our goal is to rediscover the centrality of human being, because each of us deserves attention and respect, values that get lost in a frenetic and hasty world. Today time management represents the capacity to mange ourselves and our lives. That is why we strongly believe on the research of a more human lifestyle. A new exiting project will also start this year: taking care of the Jaipur children living on the street. We are in contact with an Indian association, I-India, that provides care, homes, schools and development for children living on the streets of Jaipur. We strongly believe that sustaining I-India is a way to give people with so big problems some dignity. The cultural Association the Art of Slow living has headquarters in Pavia, but often we meet in Milano to train ourselves and meet new people, with the aim of reaching a high quality life and learn the meaning of daily actions: the art of living here and now. To give less importance to the economic remuneration and more to passion, satisfaction, knowledge, friendship; the association should be considered as a learning and training center to experiment and share new ideas. What we have done 2) May, 13th 2007: “BEAMI”, a bicycle excursion long the bikeway of the “Navigli” of Pavia, Abbiategrasso and Milano. 3) August, 4th 2007: on the Via Francigena with Eric Sylvers. 4) Every year, in March, June, September, December we meet to celebrate solstices and equinoxes in order to remember that we must alternate work and tranquility, as in Nature. 5) September, 19th 2007: “Leggevamo quattro libri al bar” (We were reading four books at the bar), echoing Gino Paoli’s song “Eravamo quattro amici al bar” ( we were four friends at the bar). We promoted this initiative in many cities in Italy. 6) November, 25th 2007: lunch and “slow dialogue” on the second anniversary of our association. This event will be repeated again in other special occasions. 7) February 25th 2008: second International Slow Day. 8) February 24th- 27th: Slow Festival in New York; slow dialogue in a small restaurant in the lower east village, Bills and interviews in Union Square, live music, poetry reading and other performances at Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Who we are
Renato: a “craftsman – philosopher”. Muna: she works in international cooperation and has come back from Kyrgyzstan. Ella: life coach. They give new ideas for the website, and manage it everyday. Alessandra: she is our P.R. and our precious cooperator in the interviews “on the road”. Veronique: head of our messy printing office. Davide: he is the tirelessly ideates excursions in the parks of Pavia. Eric: an American journalist expert in walking along Via Francigena. Gabriele: journalist and “consigliori” (counselor). Ivano: our logistic factotum.
Then, according to the wikinomics scheme, hundreds of people and associations cooperate with us creatively in the success of our events. These are our surnames: Contigiani, Dell’Acqua, Guarino, Contigiani, Maestri, Enderlin, Zanellato, Sylvers, Politi, Ceppi.
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