28 Jun Roland Ries’ Editorial, Mayor of Strasbourg

To assert oneself as the city of tomorrow is to be open to all audacities and avant-gardes in all fields. Thus, the two thousand years old Strasbourg metamorphoses day by day, inventing new urban models, being innovative and creative in economic matters, being a pioneer in the field of mobility, but also exemplary in university matters, and especially in areas of research and health.

But beyond each of these disciplines, what holds the attention in these mutations, it is undoubtedly the transversality between these different specialties, as well as the different bridges which connect them. That is why I immediately responded favorably to the request of Jean Sibilia, dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Strasbourg and President of the National Conference of Deans, to support this project of first international meetings Science Art Meditation.

The coming together of these three terms evoking three worlds that seem to be ignored, constitutes in itself a whole program that awakens our curiosity and invites us into a universe that shakes up received ideas. But once again, Strasbourg has been at the forefront with the university degree in medicine meditation and neuroscience that she set up in 2012 at the Faculty of Medicine.

The debates on mindfulness meditation, as well as its evaluation, are of course agitating the scientific community. But it is increasingly a subject of passion for specialists, psychiatrists, and anyone interested in mental and physical health. The people of Strasbourg will be able to take full measure of it through the few highlights that will be broadcast on the City’s website.

I am very proud that we will be able to gather internationally renowned experts for three days in Strasbourg, such as Jon Kabat Zinn, professor at the University of Massachusetts, who created the MBSR (Mindfull Based Stress Reduction) method. the exceptional dancer Sylvie Guillem who gives us the honor of the opening of this event. I would like to thank very warmly the organizers of this initiative for having chosen Strasbourg for this “first”. But already, mindfulness meditation is in the news, with the initiation that fifteen deputies have just followed at Palais Bourbon.

Roland Ries

Mayor of Strasbourg

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