AFS 2022 70-Years-On Thinking Group

Giacomo Pedini

Artistic Director of Mittelfest

What a festival is? I think it means a time, a ritual time, off of majority everyday duties. As any ritual time, it works on a specific human need, often forgotten: see the world like being out of it, feeling the general view of lives, trying to touch our miseries and, sometimes, accepting our limits or proposing a shift in the vision of our social, political habits.

And now? What a festival is in a Continent of several different countries? What in a single country made by big cities, medium cities and villages? Festivals change with their context, so the challenge now is understanding our context and make the festival a ritual moment in there: it means that it can help the development of an economy, in a country in depression. It means a moment of innovation, if the context is the right one. It means a time of connection between people of a Europe that is, in its political form, more a Continent of single connected countries than a common country. What remains, I think, is: a festival is a short period in which many people are strongly linked together (to work, to see, to talk, to listen, to express themselves)


Giacomo Pedini  is the Artistic Director of Mittelfest. He is also a professor for directing institutions (from 2018-2019 to 2021-2022) and for history of direction (from the a.y. 2019-2020 to 2021-2022). He is a former lecturer for Dramaturgy of scenic space. He holds the title of PhD at the University of Pavia. His research themes are directing, dramaturgy and the intersections between theater/ performance and writing in the modern and contemporary age, with particular attention to pedagogical and historical-political issues. Recently he is deepening the relationship between gaming and theater. At the same time he is involved in the practical field: since 2007 he has collaborated with some of the main Italian theatrical bodies, as dramaturg, director and assistant director, as well as artistic coordinator of projects. From 2017 to 2019 he was Dramaturg of Emilia Romagna Teatro Foundation - National Theater, where he supported the artistic direction by coordinating and taking care, in particular, of cultural and editorial activities, training of the public and related to the production of shows.