The organizer Gianmario Pilo: “A fundamental signal to restart”
IVREA
The season of Italian summer festivals starts from Ivrea. And it is not a case. The great invasion returns to its original dates (late May) and aims to give a strong message: organizing large cultural events in safety is possible.
Therefore, you can and must restart and do it with a cultural festival in a city ready to participate in the candidacy for the Italian capital of the book 2022 has a double value. Gianmario Pilo knows this well, with Marco Cassini who created the festival nine years ago. In recent days he has worked a lot with the staff to file times and events and make them compatible with the latest Dpcm and, in essence, we will get up a little earlier in the morning to anticipate the stop of events in the evening. The result is a reading festival from 27 to 30 May with over 90 guests, more than 60 meetings, 5 exhibitions, 30 lessons.
“We wanted to give a strong signal to restart – says Gianmario Pilo – and if we managed to keep the usual dates of the festival it is also thanks to the experience acquired last year”. In 2020, the festival had been moved to September. “With a precise anti-pandemic protocol and the training and commitment of a close-knit group (50 people between staff and volunteers) – adds Pilo – we are able to proceed with all the formalities, from sanitization between one event and another and the collection of self-certifications “.
As in the previous edition, the pandemic has reduced the places of the invasion, concentrated between the courtyard of the Garda museum, Giacosa theater, Santa Marta, San Gaudenzio and piazza Ottinetti. For the Little Invasion, dedicated to readers of the future, outdoor spaces at Villa Girelli will also be available. «There are already over sixty people who have booked tickets from outside the region – underlines Pilo – and this makes me very happy. This too is a strong signal of a restart and is a response to our enthusiasm that we always put into organizing the festival ». That there is excitement and desire is also testified by the requests for participation of the publishing houses in the festival not all answered.
The program preserves the in-depth trends of this festival with some interesting news. A few examples? A section dedicated to podcasts, among the most popular tools of the moment. Talking about their series will be Mario Calabresi who presents his experience to the direction of Chora and Altre / Storie, Alberto Nerazzini (121269 on piazza Fontana, produced by Dersu) Cecilia Sala and Chiara Lalli (Polvere, on the Marta Russo case, Miyagi / Huffpost) and Chiara Alessi (My Olivetti, Olivetti Archive). Another novelty is a chat with rappers Amir Issaa and Kento, interviewed by Emiliano Sbarbaglia on rap culture and Stories within sport, with Riccardo Cazzaniga interviewed by Matteo Fontanone: the appointments are defined between the Small and the Great invasion, therefore dedicated to boys and girls. Among the novelties is also an event outside the city, hosted at the castle of Masino on Saturday 29 May, at 5.30 pm, with the presentation of the book by Chiara Alessi Many dear things, the objects that have changed our lives.
Among the fixed appointments, however, we should mention the dozen finalists for the Strega prize who will tell their works in the courtyard of the Garda museum.
The guest publishers of this edition are Sur, who turns ten and Nottetempo, who will turn 20 in 2022, Sur hosts the Argentine writer Patricio Pron with his novel (Tomorrow we will have other names) as well as Neri Marcorà with a special reading that will close the festival on Sunday evening. Among the special guests, also the singer-songwriter Malika Ayane who will speak with the author Daniela Collu and the actress and comedian Emanuela Fanelli. Margherita Oggero and Alessandro Robecchi will be the protagonists of Our career as readers, 30 appointments called lectures, limited number of insights with authors, writers and essayists and space for some emerging authors. –