The “Taobuk, Taormina International Book Festival” kicks off today, the international festival conceived and directed by Antonella Ferrara, which until June 24th will bring to Taormina over 200 world-famous guests including writers, artists, scientists, intellectuals, politicians and economists, who will meet to investigate the concept of identity, the main theme of this edition.
With the support of the Sicilian Region and the Regional Department of Tourism, Sport and Entertainment, the festival takes place in the garden and spaces of Palazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano, square
IX Aprile, Casa Cuseni, Palazzo Corvaja, Hotel Villa Diodoro, San Domenico Palace Hotel, Historical Archive, D’O Dell’Oglio, Delta Marriot and in the Ancient Theater of Taormina.
The events that animated the city on the first day of the festival were “Autobiography of a reader, Books and words for a human and social identity” with the Argentine author Maria Teresa Arduetto in dialogue with Ugo Rufino, Official of the Area of Cultural Promotion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; “The Maggiorate, stardom and celebrity in the new Italy”, a magnifying glass on Cinecittà, on the “maggiorate”, as Sandro Continenza nicknames them, and on the phenomenon of stardom in its social nature with the interventions of Federico Vitella, Full Professor at the University of Messina, together with Dario Tomasello, University of Messina.
With “At the school of civil identity. A mission for change”, instead, the focus shifted to the school. In particular on the Sperone-Pertini Institute in Palermo, whose principal Antonella di Bartolo, together with Elvira Terranova, AdnKronos, discussed how the school can transform itself into a beacon of civic change for its students.
In “Transcendence in the age of algorithms. On the threshold of a new identity?” we talked about the labyrinth of technological evolution within which ancient enigmas and profound meditations on the human essence can be hidden, in the company of Guerino Nuccio Bovalino, member of the Laboratoire d’Études Interdisciplinaires sur le Réel et les Imaginaires Sociaux at the Université Paul Valéry of Montpellier and of the CEAQ, Center d’Études sur l’Actuel et le Quotidien, in dialogue with Emanuele Merlino, Head of the Technical Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture. We continued with the meeting “Manzoni and the game of identities (including his own)” in which the journalist and writer Matteo Collura held a lectio magistralis on the meaning of one of the most important works of nineteenth-century Europe.
In the garden of Palazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano and in the spaces of BPER Agorà, “How arrogant this West is. Story of a disillusionment”, a meeting to reflect on the role of the West as dominator, protagonist of economic exploitation, commercial embargo, military occupation, through the words of Piergiorgio Odifreddi, scientific communicator, mathematical scholar in Italy and the United States, and moderation by Guido Nicolosi, University of Catania. During the meeting “Demagonia. Where the politics of illusions leads”, life senator Mario Monti illustrated the major issues of current affairs: from the European agenda to constitutional reform, from the competition between continental blocs to nationalism. And again the presentation of “Elvira and Amanda, the story of a friendship, a journey aboard the Sea Paradise” by Eleonora Lombardo, writer and journalist, in dialogue with the writer Cristina Cassar Scalia.
The festival also paid homage to Arnaldo Pomodoro, master of the international art scene and creator of the Taobuk 2024 Manifesto with “Contemporary art as a crossroads of identity”, in collaboration with Fondazione Oelle – Mediterraneo Antico and Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, a conversation in which they Federico Giani, Curator at the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation, Paola Gribaudo, President of the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, Ornella Laneri, President of the OELLE Foundation – Ancient Mediterranean, Alessandro Giuli, President of the MAXXI Foundation – Museum of the Arts of the XXI, took part Secolo and Roberta Scorranese, journalist of
Corriere della Sera, moderating the meeting.
Finally in Piazza IX Aprile, at 9pm, “Mysteries and crimes. A new crime to solve for the deputy commissioner Vanina Guarrasi” with the writer and author Cristina Cassar Scalia in dialogue with Elvira Terranova, AdnKronos, to talk about her new novel “The Chestnut of the Hundred Horses”. There was also space for music with the awarding of the Sicilia 2024 Prize to Margherita Carducci, aka Ditonellapiaga, a singer-songwriter who debuted at the 2022 Sanremo Festival, who performed in a live performance at the end of the award ceremony.
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