It is the dandelion, a spontaneous plant that grows everywhere, a “democratic” flower that when it fades spreads a cloud of seeds, the symbol of the 27th edition of Pordenonelegge, which from 16 to 20 September will make the Friulian city become a fruitful festival of books and freedom with its increasingly rich program of meetings and human exchanges. And “He who reads sows”, reads the motto of Pordenonelegge this year, a “long sowing that has borne extraordinary fruit” as on Monday in Milan, where the festival was presented, recalled Michelangelo Agrusti, president of the Pordenonelegge Foundation.
A motto that contains the entire philosophy of this territory, continued Agrusti, «an industrial city that invests in culture and grows those seeds spread by businesses, banks, factories, turning them into libraries, bookshops, publishing houses, books». Books, reading, without which there is no freedom, as president Sergio Mattarella likes to repeat, whose presence will close the five days of the festival in an ideal preview of Pordenone, Italian capital of culture 2027.
One of the secrets of reading, and therefore of writing, is precisely that of dropping seeds that spread stories and memories that allow us to experience even what we have not experienced. And this is demonstrated by the over 650 international voices of literature, poetry and thought present in 350 meetings in 50 locations in Pordenonelegge, a festival territory, a wonderful project, according to the artistic director of the festival Gian Mario Villalta, «because in Pordenone there is a festival everywhere», even in the municipalities of the territory, as underlined by the mayor of Pordenone, Alessandro Basso, and the councilor Cristina Amirante who brought the greetings of the president of the Friuli Venezia Region Giulia, Massimiliano Fedriga.
As for the programme, the word that observes and the souls that speak to each other, among the international guests we start with Salman Rushdie, who will inaugurate the festival on 16 September, and continue with Michel Houellebecq, Peter Sloterdijk, Eshkol Nevo who will receive the Crédit Agricole Prize “The story in a novel”, Julija Naval’naja, Andrew Sean Greer, Thomas Schlesser, Leïla Slimani, Nelio Biedrmann.
Since it was born, Pordenonelegge has been a space of freedom, therefore, as Villalta reiterated, at the center of this edition is the “Dissensio Arena”, an agora designed to let the voices of dissent speak, between exiles and denial of human rights: the presence of the Iranians Kader Abdolah and Bita Malakuti, the Afghan Zainab Entezar, the Algerian Amal Bouchareb, the Ukrainian Yaryna is precious Grusha, by the Kurdish Burhan Sönmez, by the Chinese Liao Yiwu. And there will be the Arena Europa again where President Mattarella’s speech will be broadcast in six squares, followed by a great concert for Italy; Arena Europa will then move to Prague, a city symbol of resistance, where Pordenonelegge extends its project from 20 to 22 October.
Poetry, fiction with its genres, history, science, ecology, philosophy, technology with a focus on AI, sport, reflections on urgent current issues that inevitably become books, will be at the center of great dialogues with hundreds of protagonists: Auci, Parrella, Affinati, Covacich, Ferrari, Ardone, Bortone, Manzini, Pulixi, de Giovanni, Carlotto, Riotta, Siti, De Gregorio, Cassar Scalia, Malvaldi and Bruzzone, Balzano, Della Valle and Patota, Crepet, Recalcati, Cazzullo, Ferraris, Antonelli, Desiati, Calabresi, Gramellini and many others.
Saying Pordenone means talking about Poetry, and Pordenonelegge Poesia is the largest place for poetic voices in Italy: this year together with Houellebecq, Malakuti, Choi Dongho, Duffy, Kim Kooseul, Jamie, Buffoni, Rondoni, Pugno, the presence of Patrizia Valduga, winner of the sixth edition of the Saba Prize, and the five finalists of the Strega Poetry Prize (with Gallo, Italiano, Leardini, Lombardo and Ostuni). But Pordenonelegge, in addition to being a show (“Words on stage”, art and comics are intertwined with reading and writing), is also a young party, not only with the precious “angels”, volunteers who guard the places of the city, but also with the children of the under 14 program, and the “Small (imaginary) dictionary of girls and boys”, a festival within the festival in its fourth edition, in partnership with the Treccani foundation and with the guidance of the linguist Giuseppe Antonelli.
