Founder of CIMA Research Foundation and professor emeritus , Professor Siccardi left behind a legacy that unites science, art, and social responsibility. During the commemorative event we organized at the end of September, colleagues, students, and representatives from academia and institutions gathered to remember his thoughts and work – not only his significant contribution to civil protection but also the importance he placed on art as an alternative form of scientific expression were highlighted.
“Knowledge is the tool to replace fear.” This was the belief of Franco Siccardi, professor emeritus and founder of CIMA, who sadly passed away in August. These are also the words inscribed on the memorial stele that now greets visitors at our headquarters, a remembrance and symbol of the commemorative event Science and Art, Responsibility and Memory, which we organized on September 27.
Representatives from the university, the world of civil protection, and of course Siccardi’s colleagues from CIMA Research Foundation gathered to honor his memory, merging remembrance, science, and art—a combination so dear to him and one that, thanks to his influence, still characterizes our organization today. “Franco was a great advocate of the social value of science, because he believed science should become an operational tool,” recalled Luca Ferraris, president of CIMA Research Foundation, while introducing the day of commemoration. It was a concrete way of thinking that guided his long professional career and led to significant contributions in the field of civil protection.
Siccardi’s thinking was not confined to the realm of engineering—or rather, he was able to perceive connections between that world, often seen as strictly technical, and disciplines that seemed quite distant, at least on the surface. This is how his relationship with art developed, which now permeates the entire CIMA Research Foundation through the works of master Beppe Schiavetta. “Franco was a scientist and would explain to Beppe the mechanisms behind floods, droughts, and forest fires, and Beppe would transform them into images,” Ferraris said. Art thus became one of the many ways to communicate risks and resilience, reminding us that all senses must be engaged for effective risk management.
These were the main themes of the event Science and Art, Responsibility and Memory, during which the institutional and scientific remembrance of Siccardi was accompanied by theatrical performances by the company Cattivi Maestri. They interpreted the multitude of written memories collected from those who knew him, testimonies of a memory that will not be lost. Once again recalling our founder’s great attention to risk and responsibility was a video of the play by the late Annapaola Bardeloni, “We March Safely on the Ruins,” based on Voltaire’s 1877 “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster.”. This text was included and performed during the presentation of Siccardi’s last book, Ataviche Paure, in 2021.
The commemorative event concluded with the presentation of works by Beppe Schiavetta, now hosted and acquired by CIMA Research Foundation, and the unveiling of the stele that celebrates the bond between art and science, the responsibility of the scientific world towards informing society, and the importance of the knowledge that enables us to face risks in a prepared and conscious manner. In short, it commemorated the legacy of a person who built, both from a human and professional perspective, not only CIMA Research Foundation but also the spirit that guides every research activity we conduct. Enjoying it until the end, as Schiavetta’s dedication on the plaque of the artwork reminds us: “We had fun like cats.”