Near/far from Udine: this year’s theme is “Metamorphosis”

“Metamorphosis” is the key word of the 20th edition of Festival near/far, scheduled in Udine from 7 to 12 May, presented in the Friulian capital. From the first edition in 2005 to today, the world has undergone complex transformations on a geopolitical, economic-social, technological-scientific, environmental and anthropological level, explained the president of the scientific committee Nicola Gasbarro and the president of near/far Paola Colombo, who he curates the festival with Franca Rigoni and Álen Loreti. “So this edition – they highlighted – will talk about a planet that seems to be gradually slipping into the Great War, from the bloody Ukrainian conflict to the new Middle Eastern fire with its consequences on access to the Red Sea”.

Over 200 protagonists will discuss this common thread in over 120 meetings, including Lucio Caracciolo, Francesca Mannocchi, Domenico Quirico, Nadia Urbinati, Paolo Rumiz, Marco Magnani, Paula Montero, Edouard Firmin Matoko, Paola Caridi, Marino Sinibaldi, Giuseppe Antonelli, Manlio Graziano, Lucio Luca, Pier Aldo Rovatti, Luciana Castellina, Tomaso Montanari, Stefano Allievi, Atish Dalbhokar, Danilo De Marco, Angelo Floramo, Massimiliano Panarari.

On May 12th the final event on the theme “Who will inhabit Italy after us?”, a scenic conversation by and with the correspondent Fabrizio Gatti. And again the homage to the war correspondent Ettore Mowho passed away last autumn, and a multimedia stage event, which will also involve the Syrian poet and writer, exiled in Ljubljana, Muhammad ‘Abd Al-Mun’im.

The festival celebrates Tiziano Terzani on the 20th anniversary of his deathwith a dedicated path: to integrate the 20th edition of the Terzani Prize, there will be an interview with the Chilean writer Benjamin Labatut, finalist 2024, conducted by the mathematician Furio Honsell, while the Bosnian writer Damir Ovinaalso a finalist as author of Prayer in the siegewill converse with Domenico Quirico and Paola Caridi.

The inauguration, on May 7, will be marked by the screening of Tiziano Terzani: the journey of life, the intimate biopic of Mario Zanot. The artist’s installation is also scheduled Gianluca Costantini There are loves without paradisean artistic Spoon river for the victims of femicide in Italy, from Giulia Cecchettin “to the many other victims whose names we don’t even remember”.