Chiara Baldini
OPENING
COUNTERCULTURES: THEN AND NOW
Talk by Chiara Baldini
Back in the 60s a transnational youth-led movement revolutionized Western culture in unprecedented ways. Inspired by the wish to live a more fulfilling and authentic life, in a world where peace would prevail over war, where all people could live as equals, where consumerism did not determine people’s lifestyles, the hippies embodied the first real alternative to the capitalist and patriarchal system. They became “The Counterculture”.
The political side of the Counterculture was rooted in the Civil Rights movement, comprising feminism, gay rights, and black and indigenous liberation. The spiritual side, on the other hand, was centered around a variety of New Age spiritualities aimed at re-infusing the universe and nature with a soul and providing alternatives to Christianity.
In this presentation, Chiara Baldini, independent researcher, and Liminal Village curator will explore the reasons for the split between these two sides, which gave rise to a variety of activists’ lineages that sometimes are not even aware that they are like branches of the same tree. What is the history of the Counterculture and which are the contemporary movements that can be identified as heirs to the original revolutionaries? Has the time come for the healing of that split?