From 27 August to 5 September 2021 Mittelfest confirms once again its vocation as an international and multidisciplinary festival – theatre, music and dance, as a meeting point between Italy and the Balkans, and transforms Cividale del Friuli into an aggregator of thoughts, visions and perspectives. Thirty years after its first edition, Mittelfest is still the landing place for artists and audiences, a place of ongoing dialogue between the different souls that coexist in Mitteleuropa. But what does Mitteleuropa mean today? This is the question that drives the theme of Mittelfest 2021, “Eredi” (heirs/heiresses). Each person is called, sooner or later, to deal with the legacy of time, with what their experiences have settled on them. What to do with this heritage? How much do we want to retain and pass on from this personal legacy?
“Thus, being an heir or an heiress has different as much as intertwined meanings. One is an heir or an heiress of material goods as well as of a cultural heritage, therefore, both intellectually and physically… This heir/heiress condition concerns us at all times: when wondering about its meaning, one tries to find one’s way in everyday life; it is a way to give meaning to actions. We are repositories of something that we have received and that we are still receiving, but what shall we do with this heritage? What choices shall we make? To disown or to pass on? To get better or worse? To take something new or to give up? What freedoms and responsibilities lie within our scope? These are the questions and the fascinations that in 2021 will lead the work of Mittelfest, which is called to measure with several anniversaries, each providing food for thought on our heterogeneous heritage.”
Giacomo Pedini, Artistic Director