“Freedom” is the key word of the 2023 Pordenone law, so much so that it has been added to the traditional subtitle “Book Festival with Authors and Freedom”, in fact with the books that are its presidium, persistent writers, inclusion in the program of all cultures in the name of Culture as fundamental value of democracy.
As the Velvet Revolution of 1989 showed, in Prague, run by the poet and playwright, not the politician, Vaclav Havel, this is a very memorable place, where this year’s preview of the festival will also take place, next Wednesday, when the topic Today is a decisive topic for Europe ” Economy and Freedom” by Tomasz Sedlacek, best-selling analyst on The Economy of Good and Evil, who has spoken several times at the World Economic Forum, President of the Pordenonelegge Michelangelo Agrusti Foundation and Artistic Director Gian Mario Villalta.
“We are on the threshold of history,” is the slogan Agrusti echoed yesterday morning, presenting the program of the 2023 exhibition at the Palazzo Mantica, scheduled from 13 to 17 September, together with artistic director Gian Mario Villalta, “and we descend into all “reality” . Therefore, Ukraine could not fail to be among the top events.
“If there was peace, we would leave Kiev – again Agrusti – however we open Pordenonelegge (Wednesday 13, at 18.30, at the Verdi Theatre), participating in the struggle for the liberation of this people with the most famous literary voice of Ukraine. of our time: Andrey Kurkov.
He will present the premiere of his new novel “Gray Bees” (Keller), which takes place in the Donbass and tells about the daily life of wartime. Authors who symbolize freedom of thought will join Ukraine as a bulwark of resilience: from Nobel Peace Prize winner Irina Shcherbakova (founder of Memorial), who on September 17 (at 10 am, Istituto Vendramini) will talk about Russia resisting the Putin regime to the Romanian poet Ana Blandyan (Saturday, 16, at 19:00, Palazzo Mantica), a symbol of civil rights in the Ceausescu years, up to Mikhail Zhantovsky, the moral heir of Vaclav Havel and director of the Prague National Library dedicated to him (Saturday, 16, at 15:00, headquarters Confindustria apartment).
The festival will also be “on the threshold of history” with such vibrant contemporary voices as Anna Zafesova, longtime correspondent from Moscow, Irish journalist Sally Hayden with her intense reporting on migration “And the Fourth Time We Drowned”, as well as Federico Rampini, Natalie Tocci, Marco Varvello, London correspondent for Rai.
Maximum attention to Europe in motion (“and we must understand what is happening and what will happen,” says Villalta), and therefore, during the five days of celebration in Pordenone, as well as in many municipalities of the province, Trieste and Lignano, ready to welcome 570 major heroes, 334 events and 65 announcements under the sign of yellow, “the color of optimism” and perhaps a bit of lightness, summarized in the pen chosen for the image of 2023.
The “international vocation” will be expressed in the presence of great heroes, above all the Nobel Prize in Literature Annie Erno, who will receive the Crédit Agricole “History in the Novel” award on Saturday, September 16th. And then a preview of writer Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Challenge of Jerusalem.
A Journey to the Holy Land” (and/or with Libreria Editrice Vaticana), with an unpublished letter from Pope Francis to the author, Spanish Elisabeth Benavente, with “A Perfect Story” (Salani), from which a top Netflix series was made. founded; Georgian writer Nino Kharatishvili with Lost Light (Marsilio), Michael Bieble, a new literary case in the USA.
And again André Aciman, R.J. Palacio, Alberto Manguel, Nguyen Phan Qué Mai, Natasha Solomons, Michael Bible, Robert Perisic, Anil Seth, Ramin Bahrami, young people in the foreground (from the “tiktokers” who attended the festival, to 200 young guests of honor at the inauguration), poetry (with special regards to Guido Caproni), science, philosophy, history, children’s program, Paradise (media partner) in force with the festival’s live programs.
And, of course, tens of thousands of books, in this edition at the start, signed by Gian Mario Villalta with Alberto Garlini and Valentina Gasparet.