THE PROJECT
The book: a true beacon of culture
A project that weds the Territory’s unique features, to the longest-living inhabitants in the world and the pursuit of a quality of life linked to the rhythms of Nature and the earth.
“CostellAzioni Letterarie” is the brainchild of the municipality of Lotzorai and its ambition is to become a benchmark for lovers of reading and culture buffs. The driving force behind “CostellAzioni Letterarie – Lotzorai Festival” is reading. The name is inspired by the celestial: like the brightest star in a constellation, a book sheds light around it, on the people and where they live, holding them together in a project that makes “Actions”, sharing and the concept of inclusion an added value.
The aim of our culture project is to be a shining star, protecting readers and guiding newcomers through the safe haven of culture.
Reading will be front and centre of the festival, the powerhouse that drives everything and the main resource for sharing and coming together. We want the book to become a vehicle, a symbolic space where exchange, participation and inclusion can thrive.
Our Action is inspired by the idea of making Lotzorai a crossroads between the tourist coastline and the hinterland; imagining that the give and take of locals and visitors through culture – literature and books, the true beacon of culture – can become a unifying element for mutual growth and social, economic, cultural, political and territorial development.
A project that weds the unique features of the Territory, to the longest-living inhabitants in the world and the pursuit of a quality of life linked to the rhythms of Nature and the earth. Physical wellbeing that cannot be separated from psychological wellbeing and that is increasingly aimed at young people. And at our future. The grassroots system of partnerships created through the festival with the companies in the area ensures that the event belongs to everyone and becomes a workshop of inclusion for different age groups, different backgrounds and different ways of living in the same territory. During the course of the event, we intend to broaden the scope of the engagement between writers and public and animate the process of creating activities, workshops or events for adults and children.
The territory involved will be that of the main centres of our area, Lotzorai, Tancau and Donigala, with a view to mutual inclusion and participation, and the territories of neighbouring towns, in particular Tortolì and Girasole, mainly with the activity to be carried out within schools participating as partners.
The main objective of the ‘CostellAzioni Letterarie’ Festival is to promote reading, and thus culture, and involve different sections of the population.
First, get children reading through play and workshop activities – throughout the year – and help them grasp the importance at school of “doing”; then continue on a journey of book presentations, readings, meetings, panels involving adolescent and adult audiences; finally involve the elderly and set up an intergenerational dialogue where oral transmission has always been important and that is now increasingly linked to writing and books, especially in our area where the elderly are set up as the custodians of knowledge and the secrets of longevity.
The aim is to work on the area’s residents before becoming a melting pot of cultural contamination between residents and visitors, who flock to the area in spring and summer for environmental/archaeological and culinary tourism linked to the area’s reputation for being one of the world’s Blue Zones, and ideal for sea bathing.
The festival is all about bringing people together and creating a privileged space where everyone can join in and connect with the local community and the cultural initiatives on the schedule. A moment for new readers of all ages to get their literary feet wet and have them take part in a dance led by writers who act as a stimulus and example for anyone wanting to jump in during the performance.
As in the more traditional Su ballu tundu dance, the circle – a symbol of unity and collective strength – protects from the curious, but also opens up to those who wish to participate. The tightly knit minds of the dancers/readers represent a moment of mutual sharing and contamination in an exchange aimed at broadening the outlook of participants. The circle opens to welcome newcomers, spreading culture to those eager to be “contaminated” and conveying to guests the beauty of the uniqueness and history of our territory. This is how we intend to respond to the widespread demand for culture in an area that increasingly limits its cultural exchanges to the summer holiday period.