IED Square Fest

Opening of the Academic Year 2023-2024

Thursday, 19 October, you’re invited to the IED Milano opening ceremony of the academic year 2023-2024 and the start of IED Square Fest.

Whether you’re in a Three-Year undergraduate or Master programme, or taking a Continuing Study programme, you can’t miss the event that gathers together the whole IED Milano community - students, lecturers, staff and colleagues - for a meaningful bonding opportunity.

The opening of the academic year will also mark the start of IED Square Fest, now at its 11th edition, for the first time organised as an event outside the confines of the School and held at Palazzo Morando with the contribution of the City of Milan.

For IED this will be an occasion to open up to the city and share its knowledge. And for students and the citizens of Milan it will serve as an opportunity to question the principal trajectories of the modern world, which, along with the experiences of each individual, inevitably influence the culture of the project.

The opening ceremony of the academic year will take place on Thursday, 19 October at 11 am in Piazza Sempione.

Attendance is free and no registration is required.

The events of IED Square Fest will begin in the afternoon after the opening ceremony and continue for the next two days. It will offer an opportunity to reflect on the dialogue and distance between the generations of today, they being the protagonists, with particular emphasis on the meaning of work, of identity and of culture.

3 days of culture and thought creating opportunities for encounters, new beginnings and preparations for new departures.

Attendance is free and no registration is required.

In an era of change such as what we are experiencing today, we at IED feel the responsibility to place education at the centre of public discourse.

How do we do it? By actively exchanging with our lecturers and students, and also the city itself. This year that commitment is renewed by holding the opening ceremony of the academic year for the first time in one of the symbolic squares of Milan.

Speakers are to include Riccardo Balbo, IED Academic Director, Alberico Guerzoni, Director, IED Milan, Mia Ceran, Journalist, Paolo Cognetti, Writer and Azzurra Rinaldi, Economist.

Institutional greetings by Mauro Orso, Councillor and President of the Economic Development and Labour Policies Commission.

Sound and video performance by IED Alumnae Simona Argurio and Ilaria Braccialini.

IED Square - Talks at Palazzo Morando / online

Following the opening of the new academic year, IED Square Fest events will begin in the afternoon and continue for the next two days.

To attend the talks (in person or online), registration is necessary by using the form on this page.

A chance to evaluate the dialogue and the gap between different generations with a wide discussion of the meaning of work, of identity and of culture.

Pandemics, war, climate anxiety added to the rapid changes of the last two decades have accelerated this distance.

Phenomena such as GAP YEAR, GREAT RESIGNATION, QUIET QUITTING are being studied globally to explain the change in the approach of today’s 20/30-year-olds to the world of work.

Can we call it a gradual process of desertion? And could it lead to a rebalancing of power and negotiation relations?

Millennials and Gen Z, who should/would like to be able to imagine the future, live in a present in which the adult world offers reference points and values that are no longer shared.

Today’s crisis is also a narrative crisis of those who have lost the bearings that give guidance on how to imagine and express themselves. Those who experience it describe themselves as passengers on a train with stops and landscapes they have not chosen, that reflect values they not only do not share or recognise, but also indicate a world with an expiration date.
And this never feeling where one wants to be inevitably extends to one’s entire relationship life.

In search of their place, Millennials and Gen Z are willing to dispense with any previous choice in order to find it. Aware of being limited by the context and the historical moment, they free themselves from the nightmare of failure experienced as a personal defeat and DESERT, change course.

IED Square seeks to intercept these courses.

Featured speakers:

Tlon - Andrea Colamedici and Maura Gancitano, Philosophers

Daniela Hamaui, Columnist for La Repubblica

Luca Sofri and Francesco Costa, Editor and Deputy Editor of Il Post

Dario Di Vico, Journalist and columnist for the Corriere Della Sera

Bianca Arrighini and Livia Viganò, Founder and Co-Founder of Factanza

Mattia Cis, Psychotherapist and Founder of Gli Psicologi Online

Martina Comparelli, Activist and former spokesperson for Fridays For Future

Ferdinando Cotugno, Environmental Journalist

Francesco Armillei, Researcher at Bocconi University and the think tank Tortuga

Annalisa Bonifacio, Head of Talent Acquisition & Sales, Randstad HR Solutions

Raffaella Rumiati, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati) and Tor Vergata University of Rome

Lucia Scopelliti, Director, Work and Training, City of Milan.

Cristina Lacava, Journalist for Io Donna

Nicolò Bassetti, Director

Paola Jacobbi, Journalist and movie critic

Matteo B. Bianchi, Writer and Television Author

Andrea Grieco, Sustainability Communicator and Head of Impact Aworld.

Serena Danna, Deputy Editor of Open.online

Isabella De Silvestro, Ruben Rossi, Emma Cori, authors from the publishing house Accento

Montserrat Fernandez Blanco, Co-founder Rame

Claudia De Lillo, Journalist

4:30 pm Why bother? How work deceived us: the end of the magic spell

with Tlon - Andrea Colamedici e Maura Gancitano, philosophers and Cristina Lacava from Io Donna

Work defines us and possesses our lives in an almost pathological way. The malaise surrounding work has gone from being personal to collective, and it is interesting to contemplate how we work, when we work, where we work and why we work.

The pandemic introduced and triggered a redefinition of priorities, by reconsidering satisfaction and personal well-being, balance between professional and private life, and opportunities for growth. Flexibility is priority number 1.

Generation Z and Millennials are the age brackets that have put themselves out there the most, but why?

6.00 pm: Information, well explained

with Il Post and Factanza.

Double interview by Daniela Hamaui, columnist at La Repubblica with Luca Sofri + Francesco Costa (editor and deputy editor of Il Post) and Bianca Arrighini + Livia Viganò (founder and co-founder of Factanza).

Does quality journalism pay? Daniela Hamaui, the noted Italian journalist, interviews the protagonists of two very different, and successful, ways of delivering information, to understand who still reads, newspapers especially.

7.15 pm: Climate anxiety

with Mattia Cis, psychotherapist and founder of Gli Psicologi Online together with Martina Comparelli, activist and former spokesperson of Fridays For Future and Ferdinando Cotugno, environmental journalist.

A synonym of “eco-anxiety” is “climate anxiety”. Climate anxiety is a term used to describe the stress and anxiety that many people experience as a result of climate change and the global environmental crisis. The rise in global temperatures, air pollution, the loss of biodiversity and other environmental problems can cause worry and anxiety about the future and one’s own safety. The problem is perceived as insurmountable and unresolvable. Three guests with knowledge of the subject will be giving their views.

10.30 am: Beautiful world, where are you Viewed from the outside

To work or not to work with Dario Di Vico, journalist and columnist for Corriere della Sera + Francesco Armillei (Researcher at Bocconi University and the think tank Tortuga) + Annalisa Bonifacio (Head of Talent Acquisition & Sales, Randstad HR Solutions) + Raffaella Rumiati, former Vice President of ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes), professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati) and Tor Vergata University of Rome, and Lucia Scopelliti, Director of Labour and Job Training, City of Milan.

Presentation of the study Generazione pandemia. Giovani e lavoro nell’era post covid (Generation pandemic. Young people and work in the post-Covid era), by Francesco Armillei, researcher at Bocconi University and the think tank Tortuga.

Great resignation, smart working, work-life balance: these three aspects of the world of work have become central issues in the last couple of years following the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic triggered new changes and accelerated others that have affected the youngest workers in different ways. From the Great Resignation – the increase in voluntary resignations that seems to be coming to an end – to the widespread practice of remote work – a phenomenon likely to continue for a long time but that involves young people less than one might think – through to the greater emphasis on achieving a balance between personal and work life – with increasing focus by young people on career opportunities offered by their work.

Ore 12.00: Gender Positivity

with Nicolò Bassetti, director, Matteo Bassetti, activist and Paola Jacobbi, journalist and movie critic.

Gender Positivity = the movement that seeks to dismantle gender stereotypes, whose goal is creating a society where everyone is free to feel comfortable with the gender they identify with. We take a look at the situation in Italy through the story and experiences of the film Nel mio nome by Nicolò Bassetti.

4.30 pm: How change the relation in the school contest.

With Raffaella Perrone, head of the Design School in Barcelona and Eduardo Sánchez Garvía, head of the Fashion School in Madrid.

A discussion on how relations are changing in academic settings. Can a school for creativity set a positive example for other educational entities? Students and lecturers from IED Madrid, Bilbao and Barcelona will weigh in.

Ore 18.00: Writing about a generation

with Matteo B. Bianchi, writer and television author with Isabella De Silvestro, Ruben Rossi, Emma Cori, under 25 authors from the anthology «Quasi di nascosto» published by Accento.

What do the young and the very young write about today? Created around the model of the memorable project Under 25 developed by Pier Vittorio Tondelli in the 1980s, the anthology Quasi di nascosto was created to respond to this question: it attempts to explore the realities that young people experience and choose to recount, and at the same time offers a breadth of new voices, perhaps discovering some young talents of our narrative future. “Finding these voices isn’t easy. Because while young people are certainly writing today, they do it within networks that are outside the publishing world, and in an almost secretive way.

7.15 pm: Financial Nudism

with Montserrat Fernandez Blanco, co-founder of Rame and Claudia De Lillo, journalist.

Special episode of Financial Nudism, the live conversation format with figures from the world of culture, entrepreneurship, art and entertainment who have the courage to bare all, starting with the question “How much money have you got?”

The intent is to construct a new narrative of wealth and a new paradigm of worth. Because we don’t need new knowledge to change our attitude about money: we just need a new way to use knowledge.

11:00 am: Beautiful world, where are you 2 Viewed from the inside

Serena Danna leads an intimate discussion between two people who represent apparently opposite worlds. Generations apart in terms of values and ways of life. The goal is to produce a swerve, to deviate from the norm and proceed in an unusual way, to make a shift and change the frame of reference.

Finding a point of contact with Raffaella Rumiati former Vice President of ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes), professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati) and Tor Vergata University of Rome and Andrea Grieco, Sustainability Communicator and Head of Impact Aworld, Serena Danna, deputy editor of Open.online conducts an up-close interview.