Other forms of Life.
International Book Fair of Turin EXTRA from Thursday 14 to Sunday 17 May. Four days of free live streaming events with Italian and international guests.
After thirty-two years, for the first time in its history, the Turin International Book Fair, one of the most important editorial events on our continent, will not be held in May, in its usual form, due to the Covid-19 emergency which represents a dramatic threat to everyone’s health, to our idea of coexistence, to the balances (public and private) on which the communities we live in are based, or should be based.
Waiting to return to its usual role, in autumn or as soon as possible, the Salone has however gained the awareness on which must react upon, and that it can be done immediately, also with tools offered by knowledge. An extraordinary edition of the four-day event was therefore imagined for which the Salone’s working group appealed to some of the best minds scattered around the world. Whether they deal with literature, science, historical studies, philosophy, music, cinema, their response has been immediate and generous in the name of solidarity, friendship between peoples, sharing resources and knowledge. The virus prevents us from embracing us beyond a regional or national border, but this is not enough to make us stop keeping alive the tension that holds us close to each other, in this case thanks to the power of books.
From Thursday 14 to Sunday 17 May on the Salone website it will be possible to follow a rich program of live streaming events and interact with the national and international guests who responded to the appeal. The social channels of the Salone (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) will stream all the events live. On Friday 15 May several meetings will be broadcast live on Rai Radio3 (“The whole city talks about it”, “Radio3Mondo”, “Radio3Scienza”, “Fahrenheit”, “Hollywood Party”, “Radio3Suite”). In addition to Radio3, Rai will be present, also in this extraordinary edition, as Main Media partner to make its contribution to Italian publishing, telling about the Turin Book Fair. In particular, in addition to the commitment of Radio3, radio, television and newspapers – from Rai Ragazzi to Rai Libri, from Rai1 to Rai Cultura, from RaiNews24 to Tgr – will also present to the public the events of the Turin show, with a big space also on the Rai social channels.
In the coming days, the complete program will be available on salonelibro.it, where, at the end of the event, the contents will remain available. This extraordinary edition, in fact, is dedicated to the victims of the virus, their relatives, the medical and paramedical staff who with self-denial and professionalism is saving many lives. A great moment of reflection and meeting, dedicated to the future of all of us. When the title of the 33rd edition, “Other forms of life”, was chosen months ago, the goal was to evoke the near future. Today this title proves to be a small prophecy. We are really living “other forms of life”, “forms of life” that until a few months ago we could not have imagined. But man is at least as fragile and inadequate as he is able, time after time, to pull himself out of the whale’s belly. For four days Turin, Piemonte Region and Italy will be a point of reference for all the people who also trust in books to try to imagine, together, a better future.
With this extraordinary edition, a path of online activity kicks off that accompanying the great community of the Salone, publishers and readers, to the autumn edition: editorial presentations, cultural analysis columns, and new formats for the digital storytelling of the world of books and culture. During the days of the EXTRA Show, publishers will also be able to tell the editorial news by sharing the cover of their Book of the restart. Nicola Lagioia, Artistic Director of the Book Fair declares: “In pain, awareness, in love, knowledge. A few days ago, in one of the darkest, most confused and painful hours for our country and for the whole world, the group of the work of the Turin International Book Fair had a dream: to bring together some of the best minds on the planet to reason together about what is happening. We began to contact the interlocutors first timidly, then with increasing conviction: the responses were enthusiastic. We realized that it was a shared dream. So, from 14 to 17 May, we will meet once again around the hearth of the Salone. In the name of solidarity, sharing, friendship, that ancient spark, we will know much more, and then we will also know we have a future “.
Dario Franceschini, Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, says: “The Turin International Book Fair is a fundamental reference point for national and international culture and publishing. It has been like this in the past and it will be so in the future. We are going through a difficult and unprecedented time and the initiative of the organizers to involve, in anticipation, some of the most interesting voices on the cultural scene, represents a precious opportunity for reflection and sharing “.
“The Book Fair is one of the events to which Piemonte and Italy are most connected – underlined the President of the Region Alberto Cirio and the Councilor for Culture Vittoria Poggio -. Not being able to live it in these days reminds us that what we are facing is an extraordinary situation, as extraordinary will be this edition of the Salone. Books have always been a memory of our roots and sentinel of our future. Voice of all possible worlds. One day, some books will tell what we are experiencing. But there is one, the most important, which will have to tell and protect what we have understood and learned from this experience. And the pages of that book are called today to write them together.
Chiara Appendino, Mayor of the City of Turin, and Francesca Leon, Councilor for Culture of the City of Turin, commented: “With great pleasure we welcome the extraordinary edition organized by the Book Fair in online mode. If the health emergency is changing some of our habits, it certainly cannot erase the fundamental values of our community, including the culture of sharing and comparison. The Book Fair is and will remain a cultural heritage of our city, independent of the mode and form in which it will take place, and we thank the director Lagioia with all his work team for their efforts in creating an extraordinary rich edition with prestigious participations, demonstration of the fact that the Salone represents a lively and dynamic entity throughout the year and not only at the moment of the fair itself “. The Turin International Book Fair is a project of the Turin Association, the City of the Book and the Circle of Readers Foundation, with the support of the Piemonte Region, the City of Turin, the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation and the CRT Foundation, and the Ministry of Assets and cultural activities and tourism, Center for Books and Reading, Ministry for Youth Policies, Piemonte Banking Foundations Association, Italian Trade Agency ICE – Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of companies Italian and MAECI Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Foundazione con il Sud and Fondazione Sicilia.
The International Book Fair of Turin trademark is protected by the Soprintendenza Archivistica e Bibliografica del Piemonte e Valle d’Aosta – MiBACT. Intesa Sanpaolo for the thirteenth consecutive year is alongside the Salone as main partner. Partners: Reale Mutua, Lavazza, Iren | Main Media Partner: Rai
THE FIRST GUESTS ANNOUNCED
The complete program will be available in the next few days on salonelibro.it.
Thursday 14 May – Inaugural lecture by Alessandro Barbero from the Mole Antonelliana in Turin
Friday May 15th and Saturday May 16th
Live streaming and Radio 3 meetings.
-Samantha Cristoforetti
-Pietro del Soldà with Amitav Ghosh and the guys from di Fridays For Future (Tutta la città ne parla)
-Ahdaf Soueif (Radio 3 Mondo)
-David Quammen and Paolo Vineis (Radio 3 Scienza)
-Chen Jiang Hong, Bernard Friot, Huck Scarry
-Katherine Rundell, Elisa Palazzi and Federico Taddia
-André Aciman with Fabio Geda
-Anna Grazia Stammati, Javier Cercas, Annie Ernaux e Lorenzo Flabbi, Walter Siti talks Proust, Valeria Parrella reads Alda Merini (Fahrenheit)
-Fabrizio Barca and Roberta Carlini with Helena Janeczek
-Vinicio Capossela
-Serena Vitale
-Dacia Maraini
– Joseph Stiglitz
-Francesco Lettieri e Peppe Fiore (Hollywood Party)
-Luigi Mascheroni on Fruttero/Lucentini
-Flavia Mastrella e Antonio Rezza (Radio3 Suite)
-Francesco Piccolo
-Salman Rushdie
-Ottavio Fatica and Roberto Arduini on the new translattion of “The Lord of the Rings”
-Ocean Vuong
-Maurizio De Giovanni
-Linus
-Hoda Barakat
-Jovanotti
-Jared Diamond
-Lezione di Anita Raja sulla traduzione
– Homage to Albert Camus (Catherine Camus, Roberto Saviano, Paolo Flores d’Arcais)
-Myss Keta with Francesco Pacifico
-Roberto Calasso with Tim Parks
-Luciano Floridi
-Paolo Cognetti with Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba
-Walter Siti
– Ezio Mauro
-Donna Haraway
-Paolo Rumiz
Sunday May 17
Grand finale: live marathon from the confinement tower, which has become a symbol of the Salone and its Community
-Fabrizio Bosso
-Mariangela Gualtieri
-Lectio di Padre Bianchi ‘Dio non lasciarci nella tempesta’
-Zerocalcare
-Paolo Giordano
-Spiritual Trio
-Massimo Gramellini e Carlo Rovelli
-Eugenio in Via Di Gioia
-Alessandro Baricco
-Arturo Brachetti
-Roberto Saviano
-Fabrizio Gifuni
-Perturbazione
www.salonelibro.it
#SalToExtra
Press Office of the International Book Fair 2020
Babel Agency – press@salonelibro.it
Maddalena Cazzaniga – maddalena@babelagency.it
Francesca Tablino – francesca@babelagency.it
Greta Messori – greta@babelagency.it
Martina Po – martina@babelagency.it