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MITTELFEST 2022: IMPREVISTI (the Unexpected)

10 May 2022

12 / 15 May – 22 / 31 July 2022
Cividale del Friuli
Artistic direction Giacomo Pedini

In its 31st edition Mittelfest approaches this surprising time and addresses the theme of unexpected with two international festivals.

MITTELFEST 22 / 31 JULY 2022: 28 artistic projects from 14 countries, including 20 world or Italian premieres and 10 productions/co-productions, combining different languages and providing foor for thought on current affairs, history and science to guide us in an unexpected present. 

MITTELYOUNG 12 / 15 MAY 2022: A unique event in Europe, staging 9 selected performances of prose, dance, music and circus from under-30 Mitteleurope, this giving substancial support to young people.

Mittelfest continues throughout the year with Mittelland, a programme of widespread activities thanks to collaborations with different realities of a border area.

It is a time that never ceases to overwhelm us and to ask us for space for the unexpected that we have been going through for more than two years and that has transformed much of what we used to call "normality". But this is often how the future makes its way: with events that seem unexpected and yet have been taking root in us and among us for some time.

These are the thoughts behind the 31st edition of Mittelfest - a multidisciplinary festival of theatre, music and dance for the countries of Central Europe and the Balkans, based in Cividale del Friuli - that this year will address the theme IMPREVISTI (THE UNEXPECTED), starting with a new image in which, as in a graphic novel the density of the emerged and submerged events that define the substance of an era is collected.

The theme was chosen by Giacomo Pedini, Director of Mittelfest for the three-year period inaugurated last year, who introduces it as follows: "The unexpected are the world that goes on while we plan how to direct it. They are the myriad of events that happen before our eyes, but so distant that they escape our field of vision. The performances at Mittelfest revolve around the unexpected in the most diverse ways, also because, in a moment of strong tension towards the East, we gather in Cividale del Friuli the sensibilities of many cultures, whose encounter is already generating something unprecedented. Mittelfest is precisely the festival of Mitteleuropean entertainment and for Italy it is a valuable opportunity to get to know a significant and interesting part of our continent, which is too often identified only with its West. Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, on the other hand, tell us much better about the peculiarities of our time".

The two international festivals will be staged respectively from 12 to 15 May for Mittelyoung, and from 22 to 31 July for Mittelfest, while throughout the year Mittelfest continues under the name of Mittelland, with events that give continuity to the festival and identify it as a bridge between European collaborations and local realities.

"Mittelfest wants to be a project that radiates from a strategic territory such as Friuli Venezia Giulia and anchors itself to it in order to build international collaborations and act as a cultural driver for the Region, for Italy and for Mitteleuropa, with the aim of weaving relationships and building bridges in a dramatic historical moment like the present one, a time of divisions. And we firmly believe that now more than ever is up to culture to become an ambassador of peace", explains Mittelfest President, Roberto Corciulo.

>>> Check the programme of Mittelfest <<<

>>> Mittelyoung 12 - 15/5 - programme <<<

More info: www.mittelfest.org