Rome, Italy – Exploratory and colonizing travel. Territory conquering travel. Peace and calm travel, escape travel. Sensitive, intelligent travel and many other modalities that include not only arrivals and wonderment, but also knowledge. These are the travels and their memorable characters that will be told, shown, sung and staged during the third edition of the Travel Literature Festival in Rome, which starts today (30th) and ends on Sunday (3rd). This year’s theme is the East.
The Travel Literature Festival was established in 2008. Organized by the Italian Geographic Society and by Federculture (an Italian organization that congregates public and private service provider enterprises in the fields of tourism, culture, sports and free time), the event was born with the goal of presenting the Italian public with the most diverse forms of narrating trips, from literature, drawing and photography to film, theatre, music and comic books, encompassing cultural, historical and geographic aspects of the regions that travellers lay their eyes and souls on.
On this year’s edition, the festival casts an eye on the Near East, on Italy’s neighbouring countries, bathed by the Mediterranean Sea, in particular the Arab nations. "It is a subject matter of great cultural and historical value, and also a very current matter to all of Europe," says Federculture executive and Festival director Claudio Bocci: "Due to its geographical position, Italy is the centre of political, cultural and economic struggle between Middle Eastern and European countries. I believe that efforts to promote historical and geographical knowledge of the region are the best way to approach these issues."
The routes
The selected program makes the event’s content and connecting thread clear. In the exhibition Grand Venice, land and people, to Istanbul and Alexandria, on display at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, for instance, visitors will find a mix of 60 current images of cities in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and, of course, Venice. The pictures, chosen in partnership with photographic agency Luz, were taken by Italian photographers and are shown alongside 13 imposing geographic charts and 11 rare books, published between the 16th and 19th centuries, including accounts and maps of old commercial routes of the period. The most valuable works include Viaggio da Venetia a Costantinopoli, by Giuseppe Rosaccio, dating back to 1598.
The goal of the exhibition, according to curators Antonio Politano and Simone Bozzato, is to recount the influence that Venice had on all of the Middle Eastern region centuries ago, transposing it to modern days and showing that the Mediterranean is a place of meeting and peace. Images of young surfers in Palestine, children in parks in Syria and smiling faces are part of the selection. The exhibition will remain on display until October 24th.
The second exhibition of the Festival, entitled Turkish Things, stories of Italian travellers between the 16th and 20th centuries, on display at the library of the Italian Geographic Society, explores another section of the East, namely Turkey: it features documents, books, charts, notebooks, photographs and postcards from Italian travellers to the country. The latter will remain open only until Sunday (3rd).
Place of books
Out of 20 scheduled meetings, the highlights are Alexandria and Salonicco, the place of books and the mixed-race capital, due Friday (1st) at the garden of the Italian Geographic Society headquarters. The event will bring together Youssef Zeidan, director of the Manuscripts Centre at the Library of Alexandria, in Egypt, and author of the novel Azazel; La Repubblica journalist Bernardo Valli, and writer Melania Mazzucco.
Another important meeting will feature the founders of travel guides Lonely Planet, Tony and Maureen Wheeler. They will introduce Lonely Planet’s new collection, released this year and entitled Auteur Itineraries. The collection features illustrated guides by authors such as French journalist Elodie Lepage, who wrote about Florence.
As for theatre, the Festival features the play "Queen Without a Crown," by Massimo Vincenzi, which tells the story of the British Gertrude Bell, a key character to the establishment of the modern Iraqi state. A Lawrence of Arabia-of-sorts, Gertrude was one of the heads of British Intelligence in the Middle East during the Arab revolt, which gave rise to Iraq, through the unification of three provinces. Passionate about Arab people and culture and possessing in-depth knowledge of the region, Gertrude was an active participant in the region’s independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the 1910s. The play will be staged at the Geographic Society headquarters on Friday (1st).
Tribute
The cinema exhibition will feature two films by Gabriele Salvatores: Marrakech Express, from 1989, and Puerto Escondido, from 1992. It is a tribute to the director whose Marrakech Express, in the late eighties, took the average Italian on an interesting tour of Italy, France and Spain, to arrive at the unknown Morocco. The trip uses the outside as a starting point to reveal the interior of each character. In Puerto Escondido, boundaries are crossed to arrive at the paradisiacal, colourful Mexico, shedding light on the stereotypes created by Europeans. It is another great trip.
All of the Travel Literature Festival’s activities are free of charge. The event has two focal points, Palazzo delle Esposizioni and the Italian Geographic Society headquarters. Events will be held on the sidelines at the libraries in Rome and in Temple of Hadrian.
Further information
Site: http://www.festivaletteraturadiviaggio.it/
E-mail: info@festivalletteraturadiviaggio.it
Telephone: + 39 060608
Places
Palazzo delle Esposizioni
Address: Via Milano, 13, exit 9 A, Rome
Italian Geographic Society
Address: Via delle Navicella, 12, Rome
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
