GO! 2025 Nova Gorica - Gorica European Capital of Culture: official program presented

Presented the program of GO! 2025 Nova Gorica - Gorizia European Capital of Culture, which will revolve around four main themes: War and Peace, The Creation of the New, Smugglers, and Lots of Green. Planned cultural events including music, art, nature, interdisciplinary performances, food and wine festivals, architectural and urban planning projects, art exhibitions, and concerts by international stars. The union between the two cities is represented in the image chosen as the GO! 2025 poster, created by Lorenzo Mattotti: a couple - he Italian, she Slovenian or vice versa, dancing on a bridge surrounded by a thousand shades of green, above the Soča/Soča River, elements of union and connection between Nova Gorica and Gorica. A rich program of events, exhibitions and cultural and food and wine initiatives.

The presentation of the official GO! 2025 program was also attended by Marko Rusjan (Secretary of State at the Slovenian Ministry of Culture), Massimiliano Fedriga (President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region), Paolo Petiziol (President of GECT GO), Samo Turel (Mayor of Nova Gorica), Rodolfo Ziberna (Mayor of Gorizia), Romina Kocina (Director GECT GO), Mija Lorbek (Director Javni zavod GO! 2025) and Marco Marinuzzi (Project Manager GO! 2025).

“These pillars, which I would call windows, overlook different worlds,” said Stojan Pelko, GO! 2025 Program Director. “We are convinced that this Region can tell Europe and the world how difficult it is to build peace after war, and how the only border that concerns us is the one for the future, with sustainability at the center. In the acronym GO we recognize both cities, both the Slovenian city of Nova Gorica and the Italian city of Gorizia. They are two cities in two different states, which are together European Capital of Culture-first time in the history of the European Union, in a cross-border way. So it is an engine of development that also maximizes the message we want to send to the European Union and Europe: in an area that had been marked by conflict and war, today we are talking about peace.”

The program

The cultural calendar will offer a series of exhibition events, including an exhibition dedicated to Zoran Music, and an extensive tribute to Franco Basaglia, with the touring to Slovenian venues of “Marco Cavallo,” a symbol of the breaking down of borders and prejudices on mental health. There will be no shortage of film, music and theater productions, a transgenerational docu-fiction directed by Tomi Janezic, and a documentary by Anja Medved dedicated to World War II witnesses. Plus, the May 1 March, which will involve several European cities located on the border, the Biennial of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean, a focus on architect Edvard Ravnikar who designed the city of Nova Gorica, and a palimpsest of proposals on sustainability: from the future of food, with workshops and art projects by Jurij Krpan, to a showcase on the Seed Library at the Bevk Library in Nova Gorica.

The official program will kick off on February 8 with the opening ceremony, titled From Station to Station, which will coincide with Slovenian Culture Day (anniversary of the death of poet France Prešeren, as well as the anniversary of the birth of poet Giuseppe Ungaretti). The ceremony will last all day and will cover the territories of both cities. Headed by Neda Rusjan Bric and with the presence of national and international guests, political representatives from Slovenia, Italy, Brussels and Europe, including President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella and President of the Republic of Slovenia Nataša Pirc Musar, it will be an eventful day divided into three parts. The first part will include a cross-border procession from the Gorizia train station to the main square in Nova Gorica. At 4 p.m., the official ceremony will follow in the Transalpina/Trg Evrope Square, which is half in Italy and half in Slovenia, the undisputed symbol of GO! 2025. The main artistic show will take place at 6 p.m. in Nova Gorica’s main square, with audiovisual performances, music and more. Also in Gorica, at the Victory Square, Remo Anzovino will perform among the confirmed artists. The cross-border party will continue late into the night with DJ sets by DADDY G (Massive Attack) and Andy Smith (Portishead) in Transalpina Square.

“This collaboration between Italy and Slovenia is an event that represents European values, and will go down in the history of all future European Capitals of Culture,” said Massimiliano Fedriga, President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region. “The events that we have structured are based on people: their purpose is to bring people from different languages and cultures to dialogue and live together, but to meet in one Capital. On this, the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region has made very important interventions for Gorizia, investing a lot of resources.”

In addition to the events in the official program, a synergy of Slovenian and Italian entities has made possible the creation of a schedule that sees in the GO! 2025 calendar cross-border, international and local projects designed both for the citizens of the area and for visitors.

“The title of European Capital has been awarded by the Commission since 1985-this is the 40th anniversary-and is always awarded to a city. In 2019 we decided to apply together, leveraging the cross-border factor, pointing to the border as a strength and opportunity. The two cities won the title and in December 2020 they were proclaimed: two cities together, two different countries, won a unique title. Since 2020, the preparatory work has started and today we are at the climax, everything will start in a few weeks, on February 8,” comments Romina Kocina, EGTC GO Director, “since it is such a complex partnership, we are facing various challenges and therefore we have more actors involved.”

The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation EGTC GO has financed 56 cross-border projects through the Interreg Italy-Slovenia program (about 10 million in EU funds), and the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia has worked with institutions in the area (through the Directorate for Culture and the Regional Cultural Heritage Board) to converge the work of many cultural actors on the border theme and financed additional strategic initiatives in the cultural sphere worth about 10 million. In Gorizia, the exhibition dedicated to the treasures of Aquileia and the exhibition Tre Sguardi with photographs by Steve McCurry, Alex Majoli and Meta Krese telling the story of the border. Gorizia will also host the masterclass for young dancers with étoile Eleonora Abbagnato and the dancers of the Rome Opera, the Fice days with Palazzo del Cinema, the production of 8 short films with FVG Film Commission made ad hoc on the occasion of the European Capital of Culture and selected by a jury of experts chaired by director Gabriele Salvatores, and the docufilm on philosopher Carlo Michaelstadter written and directed by director and actor Massimiliano Finazzer Flory.

The events also include concerts: Thirty Seconds to Mars (July 3), with their only date in northeastern Italy, and Massive Attack (June 24) will enliven the Casa Rossa Arena in Gorizia, a place once used as a stall for heavy vehicles in transit on the border and now redeveloped and also made available to host major events. Also confirmed are traditional Gorizia events such as the èStoria festival, the Sergio Amidei screenplay award and the food and wine festival Gusti di frontiera, which for the occasion will be declined in a cross-border key.

Joining the official GO!2025 program is the schedule of GO!2025&Friends, a series of events including exhibitions, concerts by international artists and other initiatives involving the entire Friuli Venezia Giulia region with appointments that will host names of national and international stature. GO!2025&Friends represents a continuum with the official agenda with the goal of increasing participation throughout the region and leveraging the visibility of the initiative to enhance the Friuli Venezia Giulia destination. Within this review have already opened the exhibitions Steve McCurry. Looks on the World at the Salone degli Incanti in Trieste; Photography Wulz. Trieste, the family, the atelier, a photographic journey spanning more than 100 years that chronicles the stages of Trieste’s economic, demographic, social and cultural development through the privileged filter of the Wulz family, viisitable until April 27 at the city’s Magazzino delle Idee. The summer of GO!2025&Friends will instead come alive with live performances by Alanis Morissette, the queen of alternative rock who will enchant audiences on June 22, 2025 at Villa Manin in Codroipo (Udine); Sting, who on July 9 will also bring one of the dates of his Sting 3.0 World Tour to Villa Manin; and Robbie Williams, whose live show-the only one planned in Italy-is scheduled for July 17, 2025 at Trieste’s Nereo Rocco Stadium.

To experience Nova Gorica-Gorizia, PromoTursimo FVG is organizing two guided tours throughout the year. The first, Gorizia Atmospheres- Classic Tour, available on Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m., allows visitors to enjoy Gorizia, the Collio, the Brda area, the Soča River, and the three hills on which some of the most important battles of the Great War in Italy took place: Calvario, Sabotino, and San Michele. The second experience, Gorizia - A Frontier History, available on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:30 a.m., takes one directly inside the city’s troubled history in the 20th century, approaching the border where the memory of the heartbreak of so many families still reverberates.

The full calendar of events is available at the link: www.go2025.eu/it/whats-up/calendario-eventi-gorizia-nova-gorica

GO! 2025 Nova Gorica - Gorica European Capital of Culture: official program presented

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