writers in the city
From November 12th to 16th, scrittorincittà returns to Cuneo for its 27th edition , and presents itself with a theme with double meaning. It's one word, just one word: CIRCLES . But it can be read in two different and not at all distant ways.
SEARCHES is the verb to seek, meaning to let ourselves be inspired by an invitation and a desire. What are you seeking? It's perhaps the most common question today, even when it's not asked explicitly. What are you seeking? Happiness, work, health, free time, world peace? What are you seeking deep down? What are you seeking on the surface? What moves you toward different goals, what makes you get out of bed in the morning? Are you seeking that "original pact of the spirit with the universe," as Simone Weil said?
Among children, teenagers, and adults, we haven't stopped searching, especially if we frequent books and their authors. Are you looking for something? It's the recurring question in contemporary communication. The Internet itself was born that way, because people are looking for something and so they can find it. Even the latest generation of technologies seem to answer the same question: are you looking? Who knows if we've found what we're looking for, if we've looked in the right places, and if searching doesn't already give meaning to existence, well before we find anything. Searching is an action in itself, and ultimately an achievement. "It makes you feel young," said Konrad Lorenz. Even when the journey is long, even when you find something else, perhaps something better. If you stop searching, you live less. We know this well at all ages. What do we look for in books? Perhaps to see "if you yourself aren't hidden somewhere outside your own circle," as Franz Kafka wrote? Is there something that books search for in us readers, or in us authors? Do we feel sought after? Wanted?
Perhaps we are seeking… the squaring of the circle. Because CERCHI is not just a verb but also a plural noun. They are the circles that tell us about the perfection of things, or those of bicycles or those in the crop, traced by who knows who, and the Olympic rings, so important because they represent the closeness between continents, and the circles at the head of those who ask so many questions. But circles are also the planets, when we draw them on a map: our Earth is a circle in a child's drawing. At scrittorincittà, circles will form above all of people, because as human beings we need to be in circles, to find ourselves, we desire small, intimate and familiar circles, and larger circles, which allow us to feel part of a civilization, each with their own place, without exclusions.
Standing in a circle is a way of experiencing community. If today's society sometimes seems like a long selfie, the shape of the circle goes against convention, against self-sufficiency. The circle is altruism. At scrittorincittà, books and beautiful people are beautiful, and in a circle we return to look each other in the face, to talk. Together. If you search for scrittorincittà this year, you'll find a circle. We were born for that.
Scrittorincittà's primary goal is to promote reading for everyone, from adults to children. For this reason, it is one of the festivals in Italy that dedicates the most space to events for young people, with a rich program for schools, from preschool to high school, which will be present again this year.
Scrittorincittà is an initiative of the Municipality of Cuneo , in collaboration with the Province of Cuneo and the Piedmont Region , and is organised by the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Cuneo and the Civic Library .
The program is curated by Stefania Chiavero, Matteo Corradini, Raffaele Riba, Giorgio Scianna, and Andrea Valente.
